Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2025
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program
Political Science
Advisor
Ming Xia
Subject Categories
Comparative Politics | Geography | Political Science | Political Theory
Keywords
Foodways, cuisine, crisis narratives, conjunctural analysis, uneven development
Abstract
Polities and media external to Haiti direct a lot of narrative focus on the country being the source of its own protracted crises. This represents a powerful narrative hegemony that casts the post-colonial nation as a zone of perpetual disasters or crisis. To maintain that narrative domination over Haiti, opportunistic observers of Haiti’s media spectacles of crisis only need to atomize the country’s newest crisis or natural disaster from the history that situates it. The elision of the Haitian memory – a memory of structural adjustment programs, systematic displacement, foreign-sponsored paramilitary violence, erosion of peasant foodways and agriculture – from these international discourses almost guarantees the silencing of Haitians on matters of their own sovereignty and livelihood. I contend that what bookends this cycle of crisis narratives is almost always a poorly implemented intervention. One that never has or will truly seek to altruistically “aid”, “peace-keep”, “stabilize”, or “democratize” Haiti, but instead cracks the door open a little further for future development projects and extractivism to the benefit of the United States, the United Nations (UN), and international finance institutions. Ultimately, due to the centrality of the Haitian peasant as an interlocutor with these hegemonic narratives and the agro-industrial development that has shifted their lives, I argue that foodways and cuisine are ideal topics with which to analyze the unfolding crisis in Haiti. I argue that crisis narratives of Haiti have affected cuisine and the vicissitudes of Haitian foodways. This conclusion is approached through a conjunctural analysis, using a four-point “script” of crisis narratives.
Recommended Citation
Gabriel, Marc S., "Crisis Narratives and the Vicissitudes of Haitian Foodways: A Critical Comparison of Three Food Items" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6501
