Rose-Marie Chierici

Ph.D., Associate Professor and former Department Chair

Chierici is a co-founder of Haiti Outreach Pwoje Espwa (H.O.P.E.), a Rochester-based organization focused on promoting social justice and a better future for Haiti. The network of doctors, businesspeople, educators and others have been working for years to improve the lives of people in Borgne, an impoverished area of Haiti, where they have established a health care system.

Chierici, a native of Haiti, frequently travels to Borgne, which is about 100 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Following the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake in the country, H.O.P.E. sent relief workers to Port-au-Prince and also mobilized a supply and distribution network from Rochester, Washington, D.C. and California to H.O.P.E.'s medical staff in Borgne, where hundreds from Port-au-Prince have fled for help.

More information about H.O.P.E.'s efforts can be found on its website.

No portrait available.

Research Interests

  • Community development in Borgne, Haiti with particular focus on collaborative and grassroots approaches to development.
  • Gender and the relationship between race, gender, and socio-economic status: Haiti.
  • Haitian immigrants in the United States: Haitian boat people and Haitian migrant farmworkers in upstate New York.
  • International migration with emphasis on migration from the Caribbean and Haiti.
  • The African Diaspora and post-colonial societies in the Americas.

Curriculum Vitae

Courses Taught

  • Anth 100 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

  • Anth 202 Traditional Systems of Healing

  • Anth 216 Native Voices: Africa and the Caribbean

  • Anth 228 Applied Anthropology

  • Anth 243 Women in Cross-Cultural Perspectives

  • Anth 307 Third World Development

  • Anth 313 Seminar in Global Health Issues

  • Anth 325 International Fieldwork

  • WMST 301 Senior Seminar: Negotiating Gender in a Globalized World

Research Projects

  • 1983-1995
    BOCES Geneseo Migrant Center; SUNY Geneseo
    Consultant: Haitian migrant farm workers adaptation and labor issues.

  • 1983-1990
    Cornell Migrant Program, Cornell University
    Consultant: Program evaluation, substance abuse education and prevention.

  • 1983-1995
    Rochester, Wayne and Livingston Counties, NY: Ethnographic research with Haitian “boat people.” Analysis of migration and adaptation of Haitian immigrants in upstate NY.

  • Summer 1995
    Women’s Health. Klinik Sante Fanm, Kafou Fey, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Assessment of women’s reproductive health and reproduction patterns in an urban shantytown.

  • 1995-Present
    Community Development, Borgne, Haiti. Research on: collaborative approaches to community and human development; research methods in applied anthropology including Rapid Assessment Procedures, needs assessment, program evaluation; community health and sanitation; women’s health and the status of women; education and literacy; economic development; peasant movements.

  • 1996-Present
    Executive Director, Haiti Outreach-Pwoje Espwa (H.O.P.E.)- responsible for all aspects of the project including project management, assessment, and evaluation; planning and project development. H.O.P.E. is a not for profit, volunteer organization which sponsors health, education, and economic development programs in Borgne, Haiti.

  • 1996-1997
    Consultant, Latina Commission on AIDS- Migrant Health: Wayne County, NY. Researched cultural notions of illness and gender and assessed HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs among Haitian, Jamaican and African American farm workers in Wayne County, NY

  • 2002-Present
    Faculty Associate, Family and Youth Community Research Center, Miami, FL. The Center is an interdisciplinary consortium of researchers interested in doing research among Haitian immigrants and refugees in the US. Research interests include reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.

Selected Publications

  • Co-author
    1984 Migrant Heritage Studies Kit: Haitian Component. BOCES Geneseo Migrant Center, Geneseo, NY

  • Chierici, Rose-Marie
    1987 Making it to the Center: Migration and Adaptation Among Haitian Boat People" New York Folklore, 8(1-2): 107-16

  • Chierici, Rose-Marie
    1988 Haitian Farmworkers: An Example of Immigrant Marginality. The Connection, Human Development and Family Studies, Cornell University, Winter 1988-89

  • Chierici, Rose-Marie
    1991 Demele: Making It, Migration and Adaptation among Haitian Boat People in the United States. New York: AMS Press

  • Chierici, Rose-Marie
    1996 Lifting the Veil of Anonymity: A Haitian Refugee’s Tale of Rejections, A Lesson for the Anthropologist. Identities, Vol. 2(4): 407-417

  • Chierici, Rose-Marie
    1999 Introduction to “Learning the Work of Anthropologists: Conversations between Anthropologists, Students, and Communities”. Anthropology of Work Review, Vol. XIX(4)

  • Chierici, Rose-Marie
    1999 Mentored Experiences: from Student Fieldwork to Development Praxis. Anthropology of Work Review, Vol. XIX (4)

  • Gadon, Margaret, Rose-Marie Chierici and Pat Rios
    2001 Afro-American Migrant Farmworkers: A Culture in Isolation. A focus group study of variations in HIV risk, knowledge and health beliefs of Haitian, Jamaican and African American farmworkers. AIDS Care 13(6):789-801

  • Chierici, Rose-Marie
    2004 Caribbean Migration in the Age of Globalization: Transnationalism, Race, and Ethnic Identity. Reviews in Anthropology 33(1)

  • Chierici, Rose-Marie
    Forthcoming Anthropology and the Third World. H. James Birx, Ed. The Encyclopedia of
    Encyclopedia, SAGE Publications

Education

  • Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Rochester

  • M.A., George Washington University

  • B.A., College Ste. Rose de Lima, Haiti