Biography

Nathalie Frédéric Pierre is an Assistant Professor of History. She earned her PhD in the history of the African Diaspora in the Caribbean and Latin America from New York University. In the classroom and within her research agenda, Professor Pierre highlights the plans and processes people of African descent set into motion in order to sustain sites of autonomy across the Americas. She is currently writing her first book, “‘The Vessel of Independence... Must Save Itself’: Haitian State Formation, 1757 - 1815.” It articulates the political thought of Haitian statesmen, who were bound to preserve antislavery and create a government suitable for emancipated citizens of African origin in a revolutionary Atlantic world still reliant on enslaved labor.  Her work has been published in The Journal of Haitian Studies, Cultural Dynamics, Remembrance: Loss, Hope, Recovery after the Earthquake in Haiti, and other forums. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of the City University of New York in the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC), a Black Studies Dissertation Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Ronald E. McNair Scholar at Howard University. Public engagement is a critical part of her work; and, after surviving the 2010 Haitian earthquake, she became board chair (2011 - 2017) of the Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project, an immigrant education advocacy group serving migrant Haitian teens and their families.  She has given lectures in Haitian Creole and English to community organizations; while also participating in the Digital Library of the Caribbean’s online exhibit “Haiti: An Island Luminous.” She is on the board of the Haitian Studies Association.