Michel-Rolph Trouillot

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU is hosting a conference from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. tomorrow (March 1) in memory of distinguished Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot. (Michel-Rolph Trouillot's words are the sticky at the top of Fox Home.)

It begins with a performance by Gina Athena Ulysse, and the keynote, from 4:30 to 5:30, is by Colin Dayan, author most recently of The Law is a White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons as well as the memorial piece "Remembering Trouillot."

Among the other benefits attending this benefit is spending quality time with Haitian historians, scholars and intellectuals.  Despite all of terrible tragedies and other obstacles, Haiti's intellectual class is among the most brilliant in the world.  When it comes to history, they have a perspective that is invaluable, particularly for those of us who have been brought up in the tunnel-visioned, myopic view of U.S. history: history is the U.S., and it is exceptional, triumphant -- and always good for everyone everywhere.