The Nobel may be Sweden's most famous prize, but the Retzius medal is also quite an honor.

Every three years on April 24th, the anniversary of the Swedish-Finnish geographic explorer Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld's return with his ship Vega to Stockholm, the Swedish Society for Anthropology...

I wanted to tell my story. I was feeling timid about possibilities of connecting with the audience given how I needed to tell it. I had been invited to share a story from my life in -- 13 minutes-- with over 1,300 people in University of Michigan's Power...

As the Oscar-nominated film No continues to stir controversy in Chile, Chilean performance artists collaborated at the Encuentro in São Paulo.

We came from all over to partake in the...

I attended a seminar to get the skills to "write to change the world." Instead, it changed me.

Rewind.

It was one day. Seven hours to be exact. I had signed up for this interactive seminar with a focus on expertise, thought leadership and impact. The target audience was mostly...

The Spirits and The Law: Vodou and Power in Haiti (UChicago Press) is a brilliant book, a nuanced re-mapping of how Vodoun became "voodoo" and Vodou. In the process of her meticulous delineation, Kate Ramsey offers in the world of geopolitics critical insights into the inevitable plight of...

"With enough caffeine anything is possible" reads the sign that greets customers entering Klekolo World Coffee. The small café with maximum occupancy of 35 is tucked underneath the parking structure on Court Street in Middletown, Conn.

Klekolo got its start 18 years ago when Hollie Rose, a.k.a....

While perception of Haiti as synonymous with Vodou reigns in public imagination, especially abroad, within the republic the religion is under attack again.

Vodouists and supporters from all over Haiti and its diaspora took to the streets of Port-au-Prince yesterday (Oct. 17) to protest against a governmental...

January 10 is international Vudon Day in Benin (formerly Dahomey). Celebrations will take place everywhere honoring the religion.

I can't help reflect on this most African part of our heritage in the New World especially as it is continually maligned by those whose knowledge is...

Myrlande Constant is undoubtedly Haiti's fiercest flag bearer. A (drapo Vodou) Vodou flag maker who has been refining her craft in the last two decades, Constant ironically exists in near obscurity as a Haitian artist while nothing about her work, accomplishments and personality are meek.

Brown...

For as long as I have been teaching (almost 13 years), I have used Audre Lorde's Sister Outsider in one of my courses. Nesha Haniff, the University of Michigan Center for African-American Studies professor who first introduced me to Lorde, had also brought

With Wyclef and Michel Martelly aka Sweet Micky (two well-known musicians) in the mix, Haiti's upcoming election has taken a sardonic turn. The country is currently facing astronomical challenges since the devastating earthquake January 12th and is in desperate need of unprecedented leadership. At home and abroad, everyone is weighing...

The earthquake that decimated various parts of Haiti on January 12th 2010 has a name. Goudougoudou -- that's the affectionate moniker that Haitians have given the disaster. Everyone uses the term. It is as popular with radio show hosts as it is with people on the street and others in...

The earthquake's devastation in Haiti is no longer front-page news. Most cameras shifted their lenses when the morbid and grueling work began--massive discard of the dead and what to do with the displaced living. As bulldozers clear rubble intermingled with bodies and other remains, top officials meet in global cities...

It is still difficult to absorb the images. Though I have now heard from my family members, I experience symptoms of trauma, mainly dissociation -- my mind seeks sporadic distances from my body as this is simply too much for my psyche to bear. Unlike those glued to their screens,...

Avatar is not just another white-man-save-the-day movie. As a black woman and a cultural anthropologist born in Haiti, I had doubts about the depiction of race in the film.

Before seeing Avatar, I worked on resisting the urge to categorize this film as yet another Dances with Wolves, The...