LITERANISTA Dialogue on Multicultural Books, Tech & Life

Literanista February 14, 2010

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN HAITI: What is happening, and what can we do? presented by Prof. Mark Schuller, York College

HAITI IS EXPERIENCING THE MOST DEVASTATING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS OF OUR GENERATION.

ESTIMATES OF 200,000 DEAD ONLY SCRATCH THE SURFACE. IMAGES IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA ONLY SERVE TO MAKE PEOPLE FEEL POWERLESS.

HAITIAN PEOPLE ARE THE HEROES OF THIS STORY, AND THEY ARE DOING EVERYTHING THEY CAN. THE SURVIVORS DO NEED HELP – AND WE CAN AND SHOULD GIVE IT – BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST WE NEED A FULLER PICTURE OF WHAT IS GOING ON AND HOW WE CAN AID IN WAYS THAT TRULY HELP.

PROF. SCHULLER WILL SHARE HIS EXPERTISE AND REPORT ON HIS EXPERIENCE PARTICIPATING IN GRASSROOTS RESPONSE EFFORTS.

HE WAS PART OF ONE OF THE FIRST MEDICAL MISSIONS TO ARRIVE IN RESPONSE TO THE EARTHQUAKE.

Mark Schuller is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at York College, the City University of New York. Prof. Schuller has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters about Haiti in addition to several articles in public media including Counterpunch, Common Dreams, and the Center for International Policy. He co-edited Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in Disaster Reconstruction (2008, Alta Mira) and Homing Devices: the Poor as Targets of Public Housing Policy and Practice (2006, Lexington). Schuller is also co-producer and co-director of documentary Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy (2009, Documentary Educational Resources).
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

6:30-8.30 p.m. in the Recital Hall

CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave. @ 34th St.

Free and open to the public

Co-sponsored by the Ph.D. Program in Anthropology, the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, & the Center for Humanities