Hello! I'm Outgoing.I help make life more interesting.
Hello! I'm Outgoing.I help make life more interesting.
This event is in the past.It took place on February 13, 2026 at Bolivar House.
Literature TalkLiterature TalkBêtes Noires: Sorcery as History in the Haitian-Dominican Borderlands
At Bolivar House
Stanford
Lauren Derby unpacks how shape-shifting spirit demons called bacás carry the memory of Columbus's curse. Her research reveals these vodou figures, appearing as the animals Columbus brought, encode centuries of trauma, race, and resistance in Dominican-Haitian border culture.
Academic lecture
Caribbean history
Vodou & folklore
Colonial studies
Tips
🎓UCLA history professor, author of The Dictator's Seduction
🐕bacás only appear as dogs, pigs, cattle, and horses
✨shape-shifting as a tool of fugitivity and freedom
Bêtes Noires: Sorcery as History in the Haitian-Dominican Borderlands
At Bolivar House
Stanford
Literature TalkLiterature TalkLauren Derby unpacks how shape-shifting spirit demons called bacás carry the memory of Columbus's curse. Her research reveals these vodou figures, appearing as the animals Columbus brought, encode centuries of trauma, race, and resistance in Dominican-Haitian border culture.
Academic lecture
Caribbean history
Vodou & folklore
Colonial studies
Tips
🎓UCLA history professor, author of The Dictator's Seduction
🐕bacás only appear as dogs, pigs, cattle, and horses
✨shape-shifting as a tool of fugitivity and freedom
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