Rockefeller Fellows

ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION HUMANITIES FELLOWSHIP ON DOMINICAN STUDIES - The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute was chosen as a residency site for a three-year Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowships Program (1996-1999). The Fellows based their research on the proposal Representation versus Experience: Missing Chapters in Dominican History and Culture.

In 1996-97, the theme was dissidence in Dominican society, highlighting the role of women, from early maroon subversion to contemporary insubordination. In 1997-98 the program was examining the African presence in Dominican life from slavery times to the present, including the contributions of Haitians, U.S. blacks and Anglophone West Indians who came to Dominican territory at different points. In 1998-1999, the program focused on workers and ordinary people, including the experience of migrants, the formation of a Dominican diaspora, and the emergence of Dominicans as a transnational community.

Rockefeller Fellows:

1996-1997

Daisy Cocco De Filippis
Affiliation: Department of Foreign Languages, ESL and Humanities, York College
Research: “Dominican Women Authors: A Revisionist Literary History”

Julie Franks
Affiliation: Department of History, Rutgers University
Research: “Smallholders ‘Discourse of Rights’ and the Rise of the Dominican Sugar Industry, 1880-1930"


1997-1998

Dora Dávila
Affiliation: Department of History, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello
Research: “Un Concierto de Voces: Representación de Mujer y Familia en el Siglo XVIII Dominicano”

Kathleen Skoczen
Affiliation: Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Southern Connecticut State University
Research: "Rewriting History: African Survivals in the Dominican Republic

Maitreyi Villamán Matos
Affiliation: Centro Creativo Experimental INARU
Research: "The Feast of the Holy Cross in the Dominican Republic"


1998-1999

Ginetta Candelario
Affiliation: Sociology, Smith College
Research: "Las Apariencias Enganan/Looks Can Be Deceiving: Dominican Ethno-Racial Identity Formations"

Dulce M. Cruz
Affiliation: English, George Mason University
Research: "Dominican American Academics, High Literacy and Ethnicity"

David Howard
Affiliation: School of Geography, University of Oxford
Research: "Migratory Experiences: Changing Ethnicities among Dominican Migrants"

Helen Safa
Affiliation: Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville
Research: "Female Headed Households among Dominican Migrants to New York City"

April J. Mayes
Affiliation: History, University of Michigan, East Lansing
Research: "West Indians, Bandits, and 'True' Dominicans: The Politics of Race during the United States Military Occupation, 1916-1924"