Speakers

Julia Gaffield, PhD

Historian, Writer, and Editor.

Julia Gaffield is an associate professor of history at William & Mary. She is the Interim Editor
of the William and Mary Quarterly.

Marlene Daut, PhD

Professor of French and African Diaspora Studies at Yale University.

Marlene L. Daut is Professor of French, African American Studies, and History at Yale
University. She is the author of Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the
Haitian Revolution (2023), which co-won the 2024 Frederick Douglass Book Prize,
and The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe (2025).

Robin Mitchell, PhD

Associate Professor of European History in the Department of History at the University at Buffalo.

Dr. Robin Mitchell is the College of Arts and Sciences Endowed Professor and an associate
professor in the History Department at the University of BuCalo. Professor Mitchell’s has
one book entitled Vénus Noire: Black Women & Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century
France and her forthcoming book will be the first biography of Suzanne Simone Baptiste,
also known as Madame Toussaint Louverture.

Chelsea Stieber, PhD

Associate Professor Department of French & Italian at Tulane University School of Liberal Arts.

Chelsea Stieber is the Kathryn B. Gore Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of
French and Italian at Tulane University.

Lou Anne Wilkes

Lou Anne Wilkes is a doctoral student in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Tennessee State University where she also serves as a graduate assistant. She is a native of Trinidad and Tobago and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science/Public Administration (SC State University) and a Master of Education in Divergent Learning (Columbia College). Lou Anne’s research focuses on educational equity and access with particular interest in underserved youth.

Taylor Hart

Taylor Hart is a proud Bahamian from the island of New Providence, The Bahamas, and an international student at Tennessee State University. Taylor is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Cardiorespiratory Care, aiming to become a registered respiratory therapist.