Disaster Research in Puerto Rico and Haiti

Research Tutorial Abroad Program in Puerto Rico
Agenda : Disaster Research
Part A: Disaster Narrative Research in the Caribbean
•Dr. Felima’s Research in Haiti + Disaster Studies
•Disaster Narratives + Local Knowledge
•Counternarratives + Protest + Agency
•Puerto Rico in Context: Hurricane Marie + Research Questions
•Activity: Creating Keywords and Broad Objectives for Research
Program

Flooding in the Northern Haiti:
Exploring the Manifestation of Inequalities and Agency through
Disaster Narrative Research
PhotobyCrystalA.Felima,2015

Objectives and Methods
A cumulative 27 months of fieldwork in Northern Haiti
§ participant observation, semi-structured and structured interviews,
visual ethnography (i.e. photography and videos), and archival
research
Three objectives:
§ to identify common themes, categories, and associations regarding
risk and inequalities
§ to document the collective discourses and experiences
§ to locate spaces in Cap-Haitien in which political discourses and
citizenship are encouraged, expressed, and engaged

Type of Study:
Ethnographic, Theoretical, and Conceptual
Methodology:
Fieldwork, Participant Observation, Interviews, Textual Analysis
Approach (Holism, Interdisciplinary, Transdisciplinary):
Social Sciences/Interdisciplinary
Anthropology, Sociology, Geography
Major Themes:
Vulnerability, Disaster Risk, Disaster Management, Governance and
Power, and Population/Development Studies

Disaster Vulnerability is partially the product of
social inequalities and place inequalities
Cutter et al (2003), “Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards””

Cannon(1994)“VulnerabilityAnalysisand
theExplanationof'Natural'Disasters

Hazel
1954
Flora
1963
Allen
1980
Gordon
1994
Jeanne
2004
Hanna
2008
Matthew
2016
Bahamas 1
Canada 100
Costa Rica 6
Cuba 1,750 3 2
Dominican Rep. 400 5 19 4
Grenada 6
Guadeloupe 1
Haiti 1,000 5,000 300 1,122 3,006 500 1000*
Jamaica 11 8 2
Puerto Rico 7
St. Lucia 18
Tobago/Trinida
d 24
United States 95 1 2 8 5 46
Created and Updated by Crystal A. Felima - Data from USAID, NHC, Darthmouth Flooding Observatory
Chart: Haiti’s Casualties after Major Hurricanes

Environmental Degradation and Deforestation
[Source: Photos by Crystal Andrea Felima (2010)]
Research studies reveal an 89 percent correlation between the extent
of deforestation and incidence of victims in cases of environmental
hazards such as tropical storms, flooding, and mudslides.

[Source: Photos by Crystal Andrea Felima (2010).]
Population Growth and Density

The international
community has donated
heavily to the
development of Haiti.
Programs to feed,
educate, and employ
Haitians are funded by
various international
organizations. Since
1973, the United States
has been Haiti’s largest
donor.
Source: Pictures by Crystal Andrea Felima (2010).
Heavy Dependence on International Assistance and Aid

Primary Research Site:
Cap-Haitien, Haiti

Photo by Crystal A. Felima, 2015
Primary Research Question:
What do disaster experiences, narrated by
those who live in peripheral communities in
Haiti, reveal about disaster risk, structural
inequalities, and hope for the future of Haiti?

Disaster Narratives
Oral Histories + Life Histories + Trauma Stories

“Well, the water doesn’t really rise in the morning; it rises at night. Like the other time, when I
was home – around 11 pm, the water just came when I was deep in my sleep. I looked, I
thought I was dreaming, but it was reality. I got out of my bed into the water. There were
people also sleeping, so I went to their house to knock on their doors for them to get out. And
there were a few people who died.”
—Marc*, a 19-year old student // Interview, November 27, 2015`
Photo by Crystal A. Felima, 2015.
Disaster Narratives of Flood Experiences
Disaster narratives engender cultural meaning, feature localized
interpretations of suffering, and highlight a symbolic relationship
to Haitian survival.
Inclusion and usage of Other voices and Other researchers

Photo by Crystal A. Felima (2016)
My research extends the concept of vulnerability by considering
the enduring policies of neoliberalism, power relations, &
structural inequalities that have shaped flood experiences in Haiti.
Vulnerability may serve as a social pathology and
contribute to a cultural discourse that essentializes
and generalizes large regions of the world.

Communities Along the Odikap River
“The water comes, and it cannot flow out to sea because of the bridge. First, it
rains in the countryside. Then, the river’s streams intensify because the water
continues to flow from the mountains. Here, it is the bridge prevents the water
to swiftly flow out to sea. And then there’s improper construction. We are
people who live in an at-risk area. We have lived near this part of the river for a
long time – this area is composed of standing water, and we don’t have
electricity. People who live in front of the river know that the mountains do not
hold water, so the flooding comes with trash and waste matter.”
-Federick*, 39-year-old carpenter

Haut-de-Cap (Odikap) River

“If a person live heres[in the river community] say that s/he is not
sick, it is because God protected her/him.”
-Michelet, a 30-year-old DJ, computer scientist, and painter

“If I had the power to speak with the government, I would tell them that they don’t
usually manage things well. If there was a State presence here, it would be good. There
are just a few people who live downtown, but in the site yo, there are more people who
live here than they do downtown. So, in this sense, we do not have a State; a government
that is present. The government that we have now is all about helping their family and
making money. They choose not to help the people.”
-Zulmie*, 31-year-old merchant

“Haiti serves as a depotwa (dump) for foreigners to empty their trash.
Everything they do not need, they send it here. Moreover, unfortunately, it is
that same trash that we live among.”
-Peterson*, 19 year old student

“This is where we must live; we don't have another place for us to go. Meaning, when these
little houses are built, you’ll just you see a small wooden house here and a little wooden
house there. This is where we can buy land. We cannot go to other places. With the bit of
what we have, we’re obligated to take it and fill it up.”
*Pierre, a 42-year-old brick mason

Video by Crystal A. Felima (2014)
“‘After flooding, the government usually
sends food. Sometimes people who are
victims of flood do not find the aid.
Instead, it is more chimè [gangsters,
troublemakers, etc.] who find the aid. They
go to fight. For victims to find aid, the
government should go to each house that
is affected and mark it. After the water
recedes, they can bring something for that
person. However, when the water recedes,
the government goes out to the streets and
separates the aid. And if this is the case,
you won’t find aid if you’re impacted. It is
only the troublemakers who find the aid."
-Fergunston*, 25-year-old carpenter

“We usually go to the public school, the church,
or to an area that is not flooded. I have not stayed
in the church overnight, but I have slept at the
school one time. There are also times when I go
stay with my family.
There is no one in the community to tell us about
any potential dangers when it rains. Since we can’t
save any money, we can’t prepare for emergencies.
We just can’t prepare for that. The flood can
come, and we wouldn’t know. It doesn’t have to
rain here for it to flood, so we don’t prepare
anything for that.”
—Bouna*, 40-year old homemaker

“If floodingisfor3days,yousufferforthreedays.”
-Manoucheka*, 41 year old merchant

Agency, Resistance, & Protest
counter narratives

Narratives of Agency & Self-Determination
“I live in a two-story house, and there are 8 rooms. I have a lot of people who stay
with me when it floods. I close everything downstairs, and I make everyone come
upstairs – this includes my neighbors too. I make them go upstairs. Some people who
stay with me have a little food. In the morning, we put the food in a big pot to cook,
and everyone eats what we make.” -Natasha, 32-years-old seller

“The reason we created the [grassroots] organization is we see that we are
victims. We do not have any authorities that bring us assistance. We have to
assemble ourselves so that we can do that.” *Francois, 40 year old electrician

Former Presidential Candidate Jean Charles Moïse is under
the umbrella, waving to his supporters. The posters say “Aba
Lavi Chè” and “Mateli + Clinton = Vole Lajan CIRH [Interim
Haiti Reconstruction Commission].” Crystal A. Felima, 2014.
The poster says “Aba Pamela White” (Down with the US
Ambassador to Haiti, Pamela White). Crystal A. Felima, 2014.

Political Graffiti at the Faculty of
Ethnology in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

“Economics in Vodou: Haitian Women, Entrepreneurship, and
Agency.” Chapter in Vodou in Haitian Memory (2016)

Photo of Graffiti in Cap-Haitien which reads Carnival is for the “mulattos” or rich
people. Prison is for men in the ghetto. Photo by Crystal A. Felima, 2013.

“Haitians are not afraid of misery; they find a way to live how they
normally live. Haitians know that they cannot depend on the
government. If the government helps you, they will. If they do not,
you must depend on yourself. You create a way for you to live,
because that is what you know.” -Jean Marie*, 51 year old carpenter

Bridging Haiti and Puerto Rico
Hurricane Marie + Flooding in Haiti
Research Questions

The central research question that guides
this summer program is,
What do disaster experiences, narrated by
those in Puerto Rico, reveal about disaster risk,
citizenship, and nationhood?

•Hurricane Maria, the strongest hurricane to hit
Puerto Rico in nearly a century, made landfall on
September 20th 2017.
•More than 44% of the population of Puerto Rico
lives in poverty, compared to the national US
average of approximately 12%.
•On August 28, 2018, Puerto Rico’s Governor
revised the official death count from 64 to 2,975.
•Maria knocked out power to all 3.4 million
residents and left thousands without a home.
•(September 2018), about 45,000 homes have
“blue roofs,” tarps installed by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

The death toll in Hurricane Marie
• “As a result of Maria, researchers estimate 22 percent more people died during the six
months after the storm than would have had the hurricane not struck.” Most impacted:
poor and elderly.
Puerto Rico has received about $1.5 billion in U.S. aid for storm recovery
• The storm incurred around $91 billion in damages to the island. The island has received
only about $1.5 billion in federal aid, out of a larger pot of aid funding previously
approved by Congress. Puerto Rico is still waiting to receive most of the
approximately $40 billion in relief funds which have been allocated to the territory.
Puerto Rico did not receive more recovery aid for Hurricane Maria than mainland
states did for Hurricane Katrina
• Hurricane Katrina, which in 2005 affected more than a million people across three
states, cost the federal government more than $120 billion in recovery efforts. About $76
billion of that aid went to Louisiana projects. In comparison, Puerto Rico has only

Part A: Disaster Narrative Research in
the Caribbean
Activity: Creating Keywords and Broad
Objectives for Research Program

Activity: Creating Keywords and Broad Objectives for
Research Program [student responses]
• Keywords: hopelessness, political fatalism, evolving
economic/development, transnationalism, power dynamics
(zero sum game?), sustainability (e.g. infrastructure), local
insights + local context, postionality (e.g. wealth, gender,
geography), identity (impacts on culture/identity),
empowerment/resiliency + power
• Objectives: compile, analyze island economy (pre-2007, 2007-
2017, post-2017 (brain drain, unemployment, fleeing of US
businesses, school closings); identify overlooked problems (e.g.
arts and humanities); gain local perspectives to understand
empowerment, identity; analyze federal gov. response to local;
levels of vulnerability

• Anthropology
• Social Science Research, Fieldnotes, and Qualitative Tools
• Sampling - Random/Snowballing, Gender, Age, Class
• Interviewing + Performance, Narration, and Theater + Active
Listening
• Recording, Listening, Transcribing, and Translating
• Making Connections + Participant Observation
• Ethical Considerations + IRB Training Review
• Research Challenges + Trauma Stories + Witnessing
• Activity: Practice : Creating Open Ended Questions for Icebreaker
Anthropological Methods and Qualitative Research

Anthropology and Culture
Greek anthropos (human being) and
logia (science)
Everything people have (material
possessions), think (ideas, values, and
attitudes) and do (behavior patterns)
Culture is core concept in the
discipline of anthropology.

Dimensions of Anthropology
• Academic/Theoretical (Ivory
Tower): focus is on research,
accumulation of knowledge,
formulation of theories, removed
from the practical
• Applied/Action (Advocacy):
putting knowledge to work,
representing people & groups who
might not be heard otherwise,
promoting culturally sensitive
programs & policies

What do anthropologists look for?
• Patterns: repetition of a social or cultural phenomenon - a
belief, a practice, a custom, ideology, or an institution over
space and time.
• Symbols: something that stands for something. It is a shared
understanding about the meaning of certain words, ideas,
attributes, or objects
• Human Universals: Characteristics that are found in all
human societies.

Perspectives, Approaches, and Methodology
•Holistic Approach
•Emic (insider) and Etic (outsider) Perspective
•Cultural Relativism
•Ethnography and Participant Observation

Holistic Perspective in Anthropology
Holism = “the study of the whole of the human condition: past,
present, and future; biology, science, language, and culture”
How do anthropologists think holistically?
• Study human societies as systematic sums – integrated whole
parts
• Think both with a macro (broadly) and micro (specifically) lens
• Not generalizing all peoples, cultures, and societies – we are not
reductionists (we do not reduce).
• Develop cross-cultural comparative studies (ex. Haiti & PR)

Insider (Emic) and Outsider (Etic) Perspectives
• Emic is the understanding of the culture from the point of
view of the person who is being studied (insider)
• Etic is the perspective of a culture by an anthropologist
(outsider)

Cultural Relativism and Neutrality
• Cultural relativism is the view that all beliefs, customs, and ethics
are relative to the individual within his or her own culture.
• Anthropologists aim to avoid ethnocentrism.
• Neutrality [may be difficult to achieve] and Non-Prejudicial
Language

Anthropology and its Four Fields
•Physical/Biological
Anthropology
•Archaeology
•Linguistic Anthropology
•Cultural Anthropology

Provide “objective” [not always possible] insight into other cultures
• (of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal
feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.
Help preserve valuable knowledge, cultural practices and languages
around the world
Foster cross-cultural empathy, understanding and collaboration
Emphasize similarities among human cultures and help bridge their
differences and misunderstandings
Some Aims of Cultural Anthropology:

Social Science Research, Fieldnotes,
and Qualitative Tools

Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is an effort to understand situations in their uniqueness
as part of a particular context and the interactions there (Patton, 1985).
• usually involves fieldwork
• uses an inductive research strategy. This type of research builds abstractions,
concepts, hypothesis, or theories rather than tests existing theory.
• Typically qualitative findings are in the form of themes, categories,
concepts or tentative hypotheses or theories.
• The product of a qualitative study is richly descriptive.
• Qualitative researchers are interested in understanding the meaning people
have constructed.
• Meaning is mediated through the investigator’s own perceptions and
interpretations.

Fieldwork
The practice in which an anthropologist is immersed in the
daily life of a culture to collect data
Data Collection Techniques
•Participant-Observation
•Interviewing
•Census Taking
•Mapping
•Document Analysis
•Collecting Genealogies
•Photography

Applied Field Methods
• Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
• Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)
• Rapid Ethnographic Assessment (REA)
• Surveys
• Focus Groups

Live Field notes and Visual Ethnography
http://ethnographymatters.net

Sampling, Random/Snowballing,
Gender, Age, Class

Research Sampling + Race, Class, and Age
Purposeful sampling focuses on specific features of a population to
best answer research questions. Patton (2002) argues, “The logic
and power of purposeful sampling lies in selecting information-rich
cases for study in depth. Information-rich cases are those from
which one can learn a great deal about issues of central importance
to the purpose of the inquiry, thus the term purposeful sampling”
(emphasis in original) (230).
The criteria for recruiting and selecting research participants is
informants must have experienced the impacts of Hurricane Marie
OR works for an agency or organization is working on recovery
efforts in Puerto Rico.

Interviewing + Performance, Narration,
and Theater + Active Listening

Ethnographic Interviewing
Informed consent
Participant or informant: a person who provides information
about his or her culture to the ethnographic fieldwork
• Not research subject
Interviews
• Unstructured
• Structured
• Semi-structured

Recording, Listening, Transcribing,
and Translating

Making Connections +
Participant Observation

Participant Observation
The purpose is to allow the researcher to gain insights and
develop relationships that require an active, trusting rapport
with participants + cultural immersion

What to Observe During Participant Observation

Strengths of Participant Observation
•Builds rapport
•Allows for insight into contexts, relationships,
behavior
•Can provide information previously unknown
•Can help an anthropologist distinguish between
what people say they do and what people actually do

Weaknesses of Participant Observation
• Smaller research sample
• Data can be hard to code or categorize
• Time-consuming
• Recording
• Obtrusive effect : the presence of the researcher causes people
to behave differently than they would if the researcher was
not present (p. 110)

Ethical Considerations +
IRB Training Review

Ethics and Anthropology: “Do No Harm”
Areas of responsibility for anthropologists:
• The people under study
• The local communities
• The host governments and their own
government
• Other members of the scholarly community
• Organizations that sponsor research
• Their own student
Ethical Scenarios: Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ex51uXKgGU

Ethics Revisited
•The research participants’ identities should be protected
so that the information you collect does not embarrass
or harm them.
•Treat subjects with respect and seek their cooperation in
the research.
•Make it clear to the participants in the study what the
terms of the agreement (consent form) are and abide by
that.
•Tell the truth when you write up your final report.

Research Challenges + Trauma
Stories + Witnessing

Common Issues in Fieldwork
• Gaining acceptance in the community.
• Selecting the most appropriate data-gathering techniques.
• Understanding how to operate within the local political
structure.
• Taking precautions against investigator bias.

Symptoms of [Culture] Shock
Homesickness
Compulsive eating or
drinking
Chauvinistic excesses
Boredom Irritability
Stereotyping and hostility
toward host nationals
Withdrawal Exaggerated
cleanliness
Loss of ability to work
effectively
Excessive sleep
Marital stress and
family tension
Unexplainable weeping

Navigating Trauma Stories + Witnessing

Activity: Practice : Creating Open
Ended Questions for Icebreaker

• What is Digital Humanities? What is Public Engagement in Digital
Humanities?
• Digital Storytelling and Visual Ethnography (Photography, Voice
Recordings, Videos)
• Digital Publishing (i.e. Websites for public engagement)
• StoryMapJS (Mapping Narratives / Local Perspectives + Researcher
Thoughts / Positionality)
• Acknowledgement and Credit // Photos and Videos // Data Repository
• Voyant - Textual Analysis**
• Activity: Google Maps (Locating potential research sites)
• Activity: Timeline (Puerto Rican History in Context)
Critical Digital Humanities

Disaster Research in Puerto Rico and Haiti

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Disaster Research in Puerto Rico and Haiti