Cake and Eat It.

On the possibility of expanding the HOHP.....

Dear H.
Thanks so much for your straight-forward feedback.  This is exactly the information I was looking for.  I haven't made any decisions yet (obviously), I'm just trying to feel out what my options are.   If I intend to be a scholar of Haiti, I feel deeply that working to understand of this moment, post-earthquake reconstruction, is one of the most valuable things I can do for myself, since everything in the future will be defined by the possibilities that are stewing right now. And I'm on to something. I have learned more about Haiti and its history by living here for six weeks than I have learned in two and a half years of study. Through my interviews I have participated in some amazing situations and conversations, and I am looking for the opportunity to continue to collect interviews if possible. I think that what I'm doing here has the potential to very useful resource for future scholars of Haiti.  I've recorded fascinating and diverse perspectives, memories, stories, religious and political rants. Right now I have about 40, and if I stayed longer in Haiti I'd aim to collect 200. I know the intentional creation of historical documents is not the normal work of a historian, but I see it intimately related to my training.  As to my dissertation, this summer in Haiti might also have recalibrated my focus. Slavery seems so far away when there are equally dehumanizing and possibly more insidious forms of oppression that are shaping lives all over Haiti today.  Of course, it all goes back to slavery in the end.

   As far as the job,  I have been offered a position with The Natural Builders, an alternative construction consulting organization (think buildings made of glass, rubble, tires), which would give me the necessary to stay for a period of time and continue my own work on the side. The job itself is not the reason to stay, but would give me an meager income while I continue traveling around Port-au-Prince with a audio recorder. The ease with which I was offered the job makes me wonder if I could shop around for something a little more substantial, but before I do that I need to know whether staying is a viable option.

   So, that's what I'm thinking. I will confess what you no doubt already suspect, that I'm not entirely sure where this is going to take me. But I have the profound sense that staying here and devoting more effort to trying to wrap my head around this place will be invaluable for the rest of my scholarly life, particularly since Haiti right now is in such a vulnerable place, so full of possibility. But I don't want to risk my fellowship or cause any irresolvable problems with my academic career, so if it doesn't work out that I can stay, that would be okay. In the case that I return to NYU in the fall, I would like to discuss creating an independent study where I can write a seminar paper based on my summer of research. 
---cp

H., my thesis adviser, wrote me back, and miraculously he is supportive of these developments, but he has to speak to the Dean on my behalf to request a leave of absence when he returns to the country from his academic voyaging. He also said a semester sounds more reasonable than a year. So for now, we camp out and we wait. For a while I thought I might drop out of grad school and move to Haiti, but maybe, just maybe, I can have my cake....