Haiti Working Group (University of Florida)

Organized by the University of Florida s International Center, the Haiti Working Group exists to provide a venue for sharing information, discussing current trends, facilitating learning and work done by UF faculty and graduate students in Haiti.

Haitian Creole Development Dialogues (beta version) (pdf)

These dialogues were developed by Andrew Tarter, during an independent study in Haitian Creole at the University of Florida.
The generation of these dialogues was made possible by funding from the US Department of Education, which is administered by
the Center for Latin American Studies. These dialogues are targeted toward development professionals working in Haiti who already
possess some basic Haitian Creole language skills.
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These dialogues aim to:

1. Contextualize the learning of Haitian Creole through lively dialogues which
are reflective of some of the types of interactions development workers may find themselves in.

2. Introduce vocabulary useful for specific types of development projects.

3. Equip the reader with the language tools necessary to generate relevant and helpful terms and phrases.

4. Introduce relevant cultural considerations to promote respectful intercultural exchange and understanding.

NOTE: The availability of these dialogues is not an endorsement of any particular political or economic agenda.
Furthermore, it is not an endorsement of development as currently practiced in Haiti. Rather, they are provided here
on the pragmatic philosophy that mutual understanding through common language exchange can increase the possibility
of respectful human interactions. They are also offered in recognition of the large volume of development workers
who have entered Haiti after the earthquake of 2010, and will likely continue working in Haiti for the unforeseeable future.

The Haitian Creole Scrabble Project: Expanding the Tools of Literacy in Haiti

I am fortunate to have been involved in this project, which is the brainchild of Dr. Benjamin Hebblethwaite, and based on
his research on Scrabble as a tool for Haitian Creole literacy. My primary involvement has been in the creation (with another
graduate student) of the largest existing glossary in Haitian Creole. I also participated in and filmed the implementation of the project in rural Haiti in 2009. I am currently editing and arranging a mini-documentary about the project.

Vodou Songs and Texts in Haitian Creole and English

This is another project of Dr. Benjamin Hebblethwaite in which I have been peripherally involved. I constructed the architectural
blueprint of the Vodou (voodoo) dictionary to be used in the book. I am currently involved in textual analysis of the songs,

using MAXQDA software. The book is due out next year, from Temple publishing.

Bound By Haiti

Bound by Haiti is a documentary in which I have been peripherally involved. Namely, I helped with translation, provided the filmmakers with a crash-course in Haitian Creole, and raised awareness about the filmmakers experience in Haiti after the earthquake and the controversy surrounding the film at the University of Florida.

Hands that Feed

Hands that Feed is a forthcoming documentary film: exploring the agricultural collapse in Haiti, its role in the post-earthquake food crisis, and the emerging grassroots development models that seek to restore Haiti s food supply and environment (quote from Hands that Feed web site). My contribution to this film has been as a research assistant who conducted research on the long history of deforestation in Haiti. This research and other research briefs in related domains will be used to provide the necessary historical contextualization for the film.

Espwa Fe Viv - Hope Makes Us Live

This is a long-term ethnographic film project of mine, which follows a tree and the people who come into contact with it,
as it slowly becomes charcoal and moves from the rural countryside to Port-au-Prince, for eventual sale in the charcoal markets.