Gina Athena Ulysse is a Haitian-American anthropologist, feminist, poet, performance artist and activist. Professor Ulysse earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. She worked as a professor of anthropology at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

in Middletown, Connecticut, before joining the Feminist Studies department at

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

in fall 2020. Ulysse is most known for her 2015 book ''Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post-Quake Chronicle''. She is a feminist artist-anthropologist-activist, and self-described Post-Zora Interventionist. An interdisciplinary methodologist, her research interests culminate at the intersections of geopolitics, historical representations and the dailiness of Black diasporic conditions.

Publications

"Because When God Is Too Busy: Haiti, Me, & The World" is a

one-woman show A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show, one-woman show, or one-person show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieti ...

written and performed by Ulysse that combines history, theory, and personal narrative in spoken word with Vodou chants to reflect on childhood memories, social justice, spirituality, and the incessant dehumanization of Haitians. ''Because When God is Too Busy: Haiti, me & THE WORLD'' was published in book form on April 7, 2017. The book won the 2018 Connecticut Center for the book Award in poetry, and was longlisted for a 2017 PEN Open Book Award. Her first monograph, based on her dissertation research, ''Downtown Ladies: Informal Commercial Importing, A Haitian Anthropologist and Self-Making in Jamaica'' (Chicago, 2007), received honorable mention in the Caribbean Studies Association Book Prize. Her second book, ''Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post Quake Chronicle'' (Wesleyan, 2015) was published as a tri-lingual edition in English,

Kreyòl Haitian Creole (; , ; , ), or simply Creole (), is a French-based creole languages, French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it ...

and French. In 2015, she was the invited editor o
Caribbean Rasanblaj
- a double issue of emisferica, journal of the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. In addition to numerous anthologies, her prose, other form writing and art have appeared in the referred journals: AnthroNow, American Ethnologist,

Feminist Studies ''Feminist Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering women's studies that was established in 1972. It is an independent nonprofit publication housed at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. Besides scholarly artic ...

, Kerb Journal of Landscape Architecture, Gastronomica, Journal of Haitian Studies, Liminalities, PoemMemoirStory, Souls, Third Text and

Transition Magazine ''Transition Magazine'' was established in 1961 by Rajat Neogy as ''Transition Magazine: An International Review''. It was published from 1961 to 1976 in various countries on the African continent, and since 1991 in the United States. In recen ...

Education

Ulysse holds a BA from

Upsala College Upsala College (UC) was a private college affiliated with the Swedish-American Augustana Synod (later the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and located in East Orange in Essex County, New Jersey in the United States, with an additiona ...

, an MA from

, and a PHD from

Awards

In 2010, she was awarded the Ronald C. Foreman Jr. Lecture Award for Academic Excellence and Social Responsibility by the African-American Studies Program at University of Florida. In 2015, she was the recipient of Wesleyan's Binzwanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching, as well as the Haitian Studies Association's (HSA) Excellence in Scholarship awards. In 2018, for recognition of her various works in the public sphere, she was awarded the Anthropology in the Media Award (AIME) by the

American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropo ...

References

Haitian academics American women anthropologists American women poets Caribbean artists Feminist artists Haitian anthropologists Haitian women anthropologists Living people Wesleyan University faculty University of Michigan alumni 1966 births American women academics 21st-century American women {{US-anthropologist-stub