J. CAMERON MONROE: Building Sovereignty in the Kingdom of Hayti // 03.02.2022



The palace of Sans-Souci, royal residence of King Henry Christophe of the Kingdom of Hayti (1811-1820), stands as one of Haiti’s most recognizable national monuments and an important UNESCO World Heritage Site. A neoclassical ruin rising majestically in the foothills above the town of Milot, the site has captivated the imaginations of scholars and visitors alike for generations. Drawing on recent archaeological research at the site, which included site excavation as well as 3D modelling, this presentation explores Sans Souci’s complex architectural history and the nature of material consumption practices identified therein. This research reveals how political sovereignty in the Kingdom of Hayti was built from the ground up, casting valuable new light on this important example of state making in the Age of Revolutions.

Professor J. Cameron Monroe’s research broadly examines political, economic, and cultural transformation in West Africa and the Diaspora in the era of the slave trade. He has conducted longterm research in the Republic of Bénin in West Africa. This project explores the political economy of landscape and the built environment and the nature of urban transformation in West Africa during the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In 2015 he initiated a comparative project on the materiality of power and political sovereignty in post-revolutionary Haiti. This project (The Milot Archaeological Project) examines the royal palace site of Sans-Souci in its broader political and economic context in the Kingdom of Hayti, a short-lived experiment in political order in the wake of the Haitian revolution. Professor J. Cameron Monroe earned Ph.D. in Anthropology from UCLA (2003). Between 2004 and 2006, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Departments of African and African American Studies, Anthropology, and History at Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the Department of Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz in the Fall of 2006, and founded the UCSC Archaeological Research Center in 2014. He has participated in archaeological field research in Armenia, Belize, Bénin, Haiti, Israel, Sudan, the UK, and Virginia.

This lecture is supported by the Hanbury Endowment for Historic Preservation.

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