- Identify major institutions, scholars, and discourses:
- Look for universities with dedicated departments or research centers in Haitian/Caribbean art
- Take note of specific authors on readings and in journals
- Consider scholars who write in related fields (for example, Stuart Hall's work on the Caribbean diaspora)
- Understand current conversations and critical approaches (i.e. postcolonial studies, anthropology, critical race studies, diasporic studies)
- Consider alternate forms and places where information may be shared.
- Reviews of exhibits (especially where catalogs are not available)
- Sources outside traditional books and journals, including artist collectives
- Adapt your language
- Try different keywords or alternate phrasings, including French or Kreyòl/Creole keywords (if known)
- Consider how the artists or creators describe themselves and the work they are making: can you find examples of their writing, interviews, or other primary documents?
- When looking for primary sources, consider historic language differences (including outdated terminology)
- Look for English-language reviews of French publications
Keywords & alternate terms/spellings to consider:
Please note: These terms are not meant to be exhaustive, and may also represent outdated, incomplete, and harmful language that has been applied to the arts of Haiti and the Caribbean. This language is often still present in library catalogs and databases, especially if you are searching for historic materials.
- Language: Creole, Kreyòl, Haitian Creole; West African languages
- People & geographies: Caribbean diaspora, West Indies, Hispaniola
- Religion: syncretism; vodou, voudou, vaudou, voudun, or voodoo; Roman Catholic/Spanish Catholicism
- Aesthetic categories, styles, practices: intuitive, outsider, or naive art; art naif; primitivism
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Class Readings & Materials: Working bibliography of class readings