2025-2026 AADS Dissertation Fellows
Carine Schermann
Carine Schermann
Carine Schermann (Global French Studies in the Modern Languages and Literature, Florida State University). Schermann's dissertation project, 鈥淪hapeshifting Bodies, Morphing Landscapes: Anti-Colonial Resistance in Haitian Dominican Mythmaking,鈥� takes a creative approach to the study of history, activism, art, and the imagination in the most contested space: borders. Her interdisciplinary work, which combines contemporary literature, activist art, and ethnography, offers unique insights into the literature on the history and politics of the Haitian-Dominican border. She also uses her own filmmaking as part of her project.
AADS5530 Haiti & the Dominican Republic Today: Transcending the Conflict Narrative
Haiti and the Dominican Republic share an island, and their histories are often viewed through the lens of conflict and division. This interdisciplinary course shifts the focus to contemporary artists, writers, and cultural workers who use creative practices to challenge colonial, racial, and nationalist ideologies, transforming how the island is imagined. Students will practice visual and textual analysis, connect art and activism to historical critique, and build confidence in interpreting images as forms of knowledge and resistance.
Chinonye Otuonye
Chinonye Otuonye
Otuonye's dissertation project, "Remembering the Future: Race, Religion, and the Political Dreams of Biafra,鈥� is a compelling exploration of the complex relationship between local and global struggles for belonging. The connection between Biafran activism and Igbo Biafran Jewish identity challenges many assumptions, and her diverse methods provide both detailed ethnographic insight and a broader theoretical perspective. This project offers unique insights into the expanding literature on the Biafran War and its aftermath in Nigeria and its diaspora.
AADS5531 Temporalities of Violence and Redress: Notes on Belonging in the Black Diaspora
What is the lifecycle and afterlife of violence? What concepts of redress, repair, and return are created in relation to and in response to historical violence? In this course, we will consider the movement of time for those affected by anti-Black nation-state and global violence. Focusing specifically on West Africa, we will question the linearity of time and generation in connection with historical violence, highlight non/speculative forms of redress and repair, and explore what home means despite and amid violent times. We will draw from materials in Black Studies and anthropology to critically examine the movement of time, desires for/of home, and calls for repair.