Haitian Epistemologies, "Intellectual Honesty," and Positionality Work

Through the concepts of conscription (David Scott), misinterpellation (James R. Martel), and pathology (Toni Morrison; Laënnec Hurbon), this essay examines what it means to be a white woman in Haitian Studies. I first deliberate on the white woman’s relationship to the notion of a European (and officially legal) sense of property distribution. Second, I consider Haitian conceptions of property-sharing and how I might learn from them to better serve the justice-oriented agendas that undergird Haitian epistemologies. While this piece aspires towards solidarity, I also consider the importance of acknowledging what is and is not possible, not as a defeatist position, but as a gesture of “intellectual honesty” (Miriyam Aouragh).