In recent years, three related experiences of disruption have become commonplace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti:

(1) electrical blackouts and fuel shortages;

(2) a series of citywide lockdowns arising from general strikes and political protests; and

(3) the blockading of critical infrastructure by armed gangs.

Each of these experiences—the blackout, the lockdown, and the blockade—interrupts everyday life and contributes to what Haitians call ensekirite, which can be translated as an embodied sense of insecurity that arises from the experience of social, political, and economic crises.

Since 2018, these disruptions have become near-daily occurrences that are no longer felt to be exceptional but rather are expected and ordinary — that is, disruption is experienced as a mode of repetition. In this talk Dr. Greg Beckett explores how both a national political crisis and the crisis of everyday life emerge at this intersection of disruption and repetition and how disruption as repetition gives rise to a felt sense of political immobility.

Join in person at LR Wilson Hall (room 1003) or attend online.