As the superstar-magician walks through an urban shanty in the middle of his television special Magic Man (1998), David Blaine’s…
Dangerous doubles and magical ethics
Haiti
Translating music into politics in Haiti
In Foreign Policy, Elizabeth McAlister---a member of the SSRC Working Group on Spirituality, Political Engagement, and Public Life---writes on recent…
What is a metaphor a metaphor for?
Haiti has always suffered from a plight of representation: “Black France” for Jules Michelet, “a tropical dog-kennel” for Thomas Carlyle,…
“Haiti: Can Catastrophe Spur Progress?”—live stream at 12:30pm
Tune in at 12:30pm (EDT) today to "Haiti: Can Catastrophe Spur Progress," a talk by SSRC Program Director of the…
So close and yet so far
“The sound rose up and spread across the rooftops of the old city, a deep, guttural, Biblical sound---the sound of…
Disaster, religion, and resilience
Most of us seem to know intuitively that resilience matters for post-disaster recovery, yet we also know that Haiti desperately…
Haiti’s pact with the devil? (Some Haitians believe this too)
On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince, Leogane, and other parts of Haiti. The day after this catastrophe,…
Colin Dayan: “‘Civilizing’ Haiti”
In the Boston Review, Colin Dayan argues that woefully little has changed since the colonial era with respect to Western…
Idaho missionaries replay colonial legacy, imperial hubris
Anthea Butler analyzes the case of Idaho missionaries arrested in Haiti, comparing it to the long history of colonialism and…
Haiti and the unseen world
I have written a good bit recently about the intense religious responses to the Haiti earthquake, as congregations regroup in…