The Puerto Rican/Latin American Studies Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice is currently soliciting papers and presentations for its international conference on “Dominican Haitians Representations: Migrations, Citizenship and Human Rights” to take place from February 22-23, 2007 in New York City.

Currently, an estimated 500,000 Haitian immigrants and Dominican-Haitians are living in the Dominican Republic without any form of identification, which leave them exposed to summary deportation to Haiti. The Dominican Republic and Haiti share an island in the Caribbean Sea; with a legacy of colonialism, foreign interventions, migrations and long history of political and social struggles. This international conference will bring together scholars in history, cultural studies, sociology, law, human rights, elected officials, cultural workers from the Dominican Republic, Haiti and their diasporas to explore the problems of legal representations of Haitian immigrants and Dominican-Haitians in law, policy, economy and culture. It also examines the role that Dominican and Haitian Diasporas can play to find common ground.

Proposals, which should be no more than 250 words, should be sent to luisalval@yahoo.com or cgonzalez@jjay.cuny.edu no later than December 1st, 2006.