This course introduces students to the language of Haitian Kreyòl, or Creole, and to the culture of its speakers. The course is intended for students with no prior knowledge of the language and will develop both reading and writing skills--emphasizing communicative competence as well as grammatical and phonetic techniques. Importantly, this study of Kreyòl explores the language's social and cultural elements, as seen in Haiti and elsewhere in the Caribbean. The course includes an anthropological survey of Haitian history, economy, politics and religion. In addition to class work, music and film combine for a multilateral approach to language development. The program is designed to meet the needs of those who plan to conduct research in Haiti or in the Haitian diaspora, or who intend to work in a volunteer or professional capacity either in Haiti or with Haitians abroad.

" Water supply is a problem of worldwide concern: more than 1 billion people do not have reliable access to clean drinking water. Water is a particular problem for the developing world, but scarcity also impacts industrial societies. Water purification and desalination technology can be used to convert brackish ground water or seawater into drinking water. The challenge is to do so sustainably, with minimum cost and energy consumption, and with appropriately accessible technologies. This subject will survey the state-of-the-art in water purification by desalination and filtration. Fundamental thermodynamic and transport processes which govern the creation of fresh water from seawater and brackish ground water will be developed. The technologies of existing desalination systems will be discussed, and factors which limit the performance or the affordability of these systems will be highlighted. Energy efficiency will be a focus. Nanofiltration and emerging technologies for desalination will be considered. A student project in desalination will involve designing a well-water purification system for a village in Haiti."

Open to qualified graduate students who would like to pursue special subjects or projects. Please consult graduate administration prior to registration. Description from the course home page: The purpose of this seminar is to examine systematically, and comparatively, great and middle power military interventions into civil wars during the 1990's. These civil wars were high on the policy agenda of western states during the 1990's. Yet, these interventions were usually not motivated by obvious classical vital interests. Given the extraordinary security enjoyed by the great and middle powers of the west in the Cold War's aftermath, these activities are puzzling.

The design team of BIOE 260: Introduction to Global Health Issues, created a health-science curriculum that focuses on the needs of a primary school in Terrier Rouge, Haiti. The activities are designed to be relevant to local health issues, use locally available resources, maintain cultural sensitivity, and foster participation and comprehension. The activities cover a range of lessons including water purification, the importance of hand washing, and general anatomy of the human body. The program will culminate in a showcase where the students can present what they have learned to their families. Although these activities were designed for a specific group of students, the lessons could easily be adapted for a different community. Guidance and support were provided by Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Monica Dyer, Janet Wheeler, Soizic Bonnet, Dan Erchick, Rose Thelus, Allison Lipper, and Yvette Mirabal.

This Web site, created to complement an American Museum of Natural History exhibition, offers insight into how Vodou reflects the history of Haiti's people, whose ancestors were brought from Africa to the Caribbean in bondage.

The subaltern may not be able to speak in a world inundated by Western philosophy, thought, and political organization, but in The Kingdom of This World, Alejo Carpentier offers the possibility of unlearning the language of the hegemony. In this novel, African voice solidifies African resistance in Haiti, and that voice is symbolized through the novel's agnus dei, Ti Noel. This African slave's first words are a daring question that begins to highlight his potential for rebellion. However, before he can learn to speak for his people, he must first pass through six distinct phases of speech in which he learns to literally speak and then speak for himself, without mimicry, and finally speak with purpose. Although Ti Noel makes several attempts to escape the weight of his voice's responsibility, he ultimately accepts his destiny, a destiny that has cost him an entire lifetime of unlearning and relearning to fulfill. Faced with the unrelenting forces of slavery in Haiti, Ti Noel's last words of resistance become his ultimate sacrifice and legacy for African Haitians for generations to come. Through this retelling of Haiti's history, Carpentier unravels the traditional tale of voudou, numbers, and brute force and attributes the world's only successful slave revolt to a much more dangerous cause: the possibility of the subaltern having a voice.