Dr. Marc Prou is an Associate Professor of Africana and Caribbean Studies in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Prou is currently the Director of the Haitian Language and Culture Institute, and also co-founded the Haitian Studies Association. From 2006-2007, Dr. Prou was a Visiting Associate Fellow at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Brown University where he spearheaded the development of a Haitian Creole Language and Culture curriculum. Dr. Prou has taught a number of interdisciplinary courses in the Africana Studies Department, including the following: Free and Slaves in the New World, Introduction to Africana Studies, Origins of Caribbean Civilizations, Modern Caribbean Societies, Afro-Caribbean Literature, Problems in Urban Education,and The History of African American Education. In addition to his academic teaching, he has led several summer and winter study abroad programs to Haiti,Jamaica and Cuba. The research work undertaken by Dr. Prou focuses on Haiti and the Caribbean within a global context. His research interests place special attention on social and cultural history, migration and Diaspora,language,education reform and national development. His scholarship and applied research addresses the intersection between cultural studies and post-colonial theories as a means for developing critical transnational and trans-cultural perspectives on matters of race, class and gender. He is the author of a number of scholarly articles related to linguistics and education in Haiti and the Caribbean that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, and also book chapters in edited texts in the social sciences and humanities. From 2004-2005, Dr. Prou was a recipient of a book fellowship awarded by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. He was honored as one of the first three recipients of the Boston Haitian Pionneer Award in May 2011. During the past two decades, the thrust of Dr. Prou’s work has focused greater attention on finding ways to demystify negative misconceptions about people of Afro-Caribbean descent. Through teaching, scholarship and community engagement, he continues to play a significant role in counteracting the dissonance and hostility that many peoples of Afro-Caribbean heritage are experiencing globally.
Articles
Slavery in Peril or Peril in Freedom.” An Essay Review of Arnold R. Highfield and Georges F. Tyson, Negotiating Enslavement: Perspectives on Slavery in the Danish West Indies., The Caribbean Writer (2011)
Attempts at Reforming Haiti's Education System: The Challenges of Mending the Tapestry, 1979-2004, Journal of Haitian Studies (JOHS) (2009)
For well over a quarter of a century, Haiti's education system has been at a...
Haiti's Condemnation: History and Culture at the Crossroads, Latin American Research Review (2005)
As Haiti emerges from its recent bicentennial, the persistent underdevelopment combined with the absence of...
“Minimizing Risks in Study Abroad Programs: Who is Responsible?”, Risk and Responsibility for Education Abroad Programmes: The Caribbean Perspectives (UWI, Mona) on line (2005)
This presentation focuses on the possibilities of minimizing potential risks involved in education abroad programs...
Book Review of Jacques S. Alexis' General Sun, My Brother (translated by Caroll Coates), Journal of Haitian Studies (2002)
Books
Introduction to Africana Studies: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the African Experience (2013)
Introduction to Africana Studies: Multidisciplinary Perspectives is a rich collection of essays on Africana social...
Haitian Creole for Health Care (on CD) (2011)
Haitian Creole for Health Care on CD Haitian Creole for Health Care is a a...
Haitian Creole for Health Care (with Mel Schorin) (2007)
A thematic course in Haitian Creole, especially designed for health-care personnel at the beginning-to-intermediate levels....
Spoken Haitian Creole (Kreyol Pale, Kreyol Konprann) (2002)
A book organized around five major themes, which feature dialogues, oral conversation activities, and reading...
Contributions to Books
“Foreword”, THE HAITIAN CREOLE LANGUAGE: History, Structure, Use, and Education. (2010)
The Haitian Creole Language is the first book that deals broadly with a language that...
“Decolonization”, The Encyclopedia of African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences and Cultures (2008)
“Jean Jacques Dessalines”, The Encyclopedia of African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences and Cultures (2008)
Biography of Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Haitian Creole, Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas (2005)
Haitian Creole, also known as Kreyòl, is a member of the French-based creole language groups...
“Haitian-Americans”, Multiculturalism in the United States: A Comparative Guide to Acculturation and Ethnicity (2005)
The indisputable massive presence of haitian Americans in the last three decades has changed the...