“We Belong Together”

The deepest crises in American society are not merely political, economic, cultural, or racial; they are crises of moral imagination. As a nation, we have forgotten how to imagine one another as equally dignified human beings, capable of building a common democratic future.

We have underestimated the moral significance of our shared humanity and neglected the civic virtues that make democratic life possible: mutual respect, tolerance, responsibility, compassion, love, and solidarity.

No society can flourish when it closes its eyes to the possibility of living together and ignores the truth that our futures are bound to one another. Human flourishing is never an individual project; it is a collective. We do not simply live alongside one another; we belong together.

“Haiti, the United States, and the ‘Sacredness’ of Human Life”

The sacredness of human life has no nationality. We must be more serious and consistent when we speak about the sacredness of human life and the responsibility we share as individuals and citizens to protect it and deploy all various kinds of human power and resources towards that goal. A morally responsible imagination begins with fundamental questions: Who belongs within the circle of humanity? Are certain lives treated as more sacred than others? By what moral measure do we judge the worth, dignity, and protection owed to human beings?

As a nation, we must continue asking these profound moral and existential questions as we continue to understand ourselves and our institutions in the democratic sense. Honestly, we should not have to decide who is included within the circle of humanity. As a civilized people who cherish the inclusive nature of democracy and freedom, we should never have to decide that some lives deserve greater protection, dignity, or recognition than others.

Further, if we believe that a place, a community, or a particular country is considered too dangerous for one group of human beings, then we must acknowledge that the same dangers threaten all human beings who live in or travel to that place. For example, if the U.S. Department of State determines that Haiti is unsafe for American travelers, we must also recognize that such insecurity affects equally Haitians, Canadians, Britons, Jamaicans, and all others who enter or reside there. Haitians do not have a monopoly on suffering, nor do they voluntarily surrender their lives to violence and social and physical death. It seems to be that the dignity, safety, and security of human beings are shared universal concerns and values. We have to be consistent about the way we think about or imagine democracy morally and ethically.

The work of democracy calls us to be accountable, responsible, and ethical as individuals and citizens. The moral imagination of our democracy is intrinsically linked to the continuous process of individual and collective development, moral equality, human dignity, and moral responsibility. In the case of Haiti, I must say that Haiti is not a footnote to the history of the Americas or US history. It is one of the founding chapters. To understand the promise, contradictions, and unfinished work of democracy in the United States and throughout the Western Hemisphere, we must take Haiti seriously, not merely as an object of historical inquiry, but as an indispensable partner in shaping the democratic future of the Americas.

If we agree that all human lives are sacred, then all people deserve the right to security and protection regardless of their place of birth, origin, or the language they speak. If we also agree that a neighborhood in Chicago is considered too dangerous for one American citizen to visit, then the same conditions should concern every person who lives there, regardless of whether they are Black, white, Asian, or any other identity. If you and I hold that human vulnerability is universal, then our commitment to human dignity must be universal as well. Don’t you agree?

As a final note, you and I can agree on another proposition: A danger does not become more real because it threatens a foreigner, nor does it become less serious because it is endured by local residents. If we truly believe in the democratic ideals of this country and that democracy goes beyond the political system, then the right to live in safety, freedom, and dignity is not the privilege of any single nation, culture, religion, or race. Freedom, democracy, and human rights are not the property of any country, and no society possesses a monopoly on these ideals. They are universal principles that transcend borders and belong to the entire human family. I should also add that human rights are not (or should not be) determined by passports, race, geography, or citizenship. The sacredness of life is universal, and it has no frontier.

The pressing question we must then ask is not only whether a place is safe for visitors, but whether it is safe and dignified for the people who call that place home. We belong together. The cardinal belief that American citizens must “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” also makes a clarion call upon us to represent and expand the moral promise of democracy beyond this nation. This is the moral responsibility of democracy in the United States, and the unfinished work of every American generation is to expand the meaning of both.

Haiti is not a footnote to the history of the Americas. It is one of its founding chapters. To understand the promise, contradictions, and unfinished work of democracy in the United States and throughout the Western Hemisphere, we must take Haiti seriously, not merely as an object of historical inquiry, but as an indispensable partner in shaping the democratic future of the Americas.

To understand the promise, contradictions, and unfinished work of democracy in the Americas, we must take Haiti seriously.

The right to live in safety, freedom, and dignity is not the privilege of any single nation, culture, religion, or race. Freedom, democracy, and human rights are not the property of any country; no society possesses a monopoly on these ideals. They are universal principles that transcend borders and belong to the entire human family.

My new opinion piece is published today; it is about the recent decision by the US Supreme Court granting the Trump government the legal right to terminate the legal status (TPS) for 350,000 Haitians. Here’s the French version:

“Haïtiens : Nous devons reconstruire notre pays !”

https://rezonodwes.com/2026/06/haitiens-nous-devons-reconstruire-notre-pays/

Haiti is not a charitable project.
We are human beings.
We have dignity.
We share a common humanity with all people.

We love Haiti 🇭🇹 & the United States 🇺🇸.
We love democracy.
We work hard.
We pay taxes.
We are a hopeful & resilient people.
We contribute to the success of USA.
Haitian lives matter.

“A Few Writing Project Updates”

Please allow me to brag a little bit about a few recent achievements!!!
I’ve been quite productive this summer. So far, I’m satisfied with the progress I made:

1. I submitted my review of a manuscript for a University press; the forthcoming book discusses works of fiction about the Haitian Revolution. This is the second phase of the peer review process. The author made all the corrections that I suggested in the first round. I’m pleased with the outcome. Can’t wait to see the publication of this fantastic text in early spring 2027 or late fall 2026.
2. I am done writing the book chapter for the forthcoming book Bertin Louis, Lewis Clorméus, and I are coediting on Haitian Protestantism for the University Press of Florida. I wrote on the interesting topic constructing a “Christian vision” of Haiti in nineteenth-century Haitian poetry. I still need to work on the corrections suggested by my peers.
3. I just submitted an academic article to a journal on how twentieth-century Haitian writers, mostly Haitian poets, constructed what I phrase a “Vodouist poetic narrative.” They also developed a poetic theology of Vodou in Haitian literature.
4. I submitted a book proposal to a university press on the afterlives of Dessalines, particularly how different generations, diverse communities, and various traditions—from the early nineteenth-century to the present—across Haiti, the Caribbean, the United States, France, and Western Europe remembered, characterized, represented, mythologized, and contested Jean-Jacques Dessalines—the founder of the Haitian nation. This is not a historical biography; rather, it’s a book about the global memory of Dessalines after his death.
5. I submitted the book review I was asked to do for the Journal of Haitian Studies.
6. I submitted today an opinion piece to a Haitian journal on the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court granting the Trump administration the legal right to revoke the temporary status of some 350,000 TPS (Haitian) holders.
7. Finally, I will get done with my summer class next Thursday: July 2nd.

I need a vacation now. Don’t I deserve to take one, good people? 😊

When I was a doctoral student at UT Dallas in the early 2000s, I took a seminar on American Intellectual History, and one of the books assigned in the course was James T. Kloppenger’s excellent text, “The Virtues of Liberalism” (Oxford University Press, 2000). I remember vividly that my professor who himself an intellectual historian (he received his PhD from Yale) defended American liberalism with passion, enthusiasm, and intellectual energy. I was hooked and persuaded by his brilliant and coherent argument! lol

If I recall correctly other books we read in the course included Joyce Oldham Appleby’s superb text “Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination” (we may have read another book she wrote, “Telling the Truth About History”), “The Metaphysical Club : A Story of Ideas in America” by Louis Menand, the two volume texts, “The American Intellectual Tradition,” edited by David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, and many other texts that I don’t recall at the moment.

Anyway, I was impressed by Kloppenger’s balanced argument in the defense of American Liberalism tradition. I have gained great insights from his series of essay on the subject matter and I always find myself return to that book.

As I begin working on a new writing project, I ordered his magnum opus, the monumental intellectual history of democracy in the United States and Europe entitled “Toward Democracy: The Struggle for Self-Rule in European and American Thought” (2016), also published by Oxford UP.

I received the book today. The book is only 892 pages, and I love reading BIG books 📕 😊

I am pleased to share the first endorsement of my forthcoming book from Vanderbilt University Press.

“This is a monumental and much-needed intellectual biography that will stand as a major contribution to Haitian studies and Black Atlantic thought.”
—Linsey Sainte-Claire, assistant professor of Francophone Studies at Rice University

I sincerely thank Dr. Saint-Claire for writing this blurb. More endorsements to come….

https://www.vanderbiltuniversitypress.com/9780826500601/for-the-sake-of-black-people-and-the-common-good/

“Du Bois the ‘Haitian,’ Haiti, and the New Documentary on Du Bois: ‘W. E. B. Du Bois: Rebel With A Cause’”

Whenever you see a scholar displays books online, it could mean he’s or she’s working on a research project. Here’s my small collection on W.E. B. Du Bois.

By the way, I was a little disappointed about the new PBS documentary on Du Bois: “W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause.” There was no representative scholar in Haitian Studies or no scholar of Haitian descent commenting on Du Bois’s complex life and intellectual itineraries. I am quite aware that one documentary cannot do justice to such a magnitude and influential figure like Du Bois; however, Haiti occupied a major strategic and political role in his rich pan-African career and unapologetic activism, especially Du Bois’s war against capitalism, militarism, and anti-Black racism.

1. Du Bois’s father was Haitian and born in Haiti. Du Bois discussed his Haitian background in his autobiographies.
2. Du Bois wrote his doctoral dissertation at Harvard (1895) and discussed the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) at great length, and he highlighted how the Haitian Revolution led to the abolition of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, the Louisiana Purchase (1803), and the Southern states, including South Carolina—passed stricter slave codes and laws (1800)— restricting the movement and assembly of enslaved people for religious worship or purposes.
3. As chief editor of “The Crisis” magazine and public intellectual, Du Bois used his influence and editorial activism to push back against the American military occupation in Haiti(1915-1934), and eventually Du Bois and his team of Black activists played an instrumental role in ending American imperialism in Haiti.
4. Du Bois visited Haiti a couple of times and discussed his Haitian family and background—including his great cousin, the esteemed Haitian educator and intellectual Élie Du Bois—in his writings
5. Du Bois was well-versed in Haitian history and talked about his father’s land prolifically in his writings.
6. As a pan-Africanist, Du Bois planned to hold one of the Pan-African conferences in the 1920s in Haiti and exchanged correspondence with the well-regarded Haitian diplomat and cultural philosopher Dantès Bellegarde to help organize it there.
7. Throughout the twentieth-century, especially the first half, Du Bois was actively writing to his Haitian friends, including Bellegarde, Jean Price-Mars, Sylvain, etc., and even wrote commentaries and book reviews on books published in Haiti—both in French and English.

Representation is important in scholarship, in the curriculum, in politics, education, and in Black Studies. There’s power and joy in representation, especially if and when it’s done with care, consideration, and collaboration.

“Understanding the Doctoral Process: What It Really Takes to Earn the Title ‘Dr.’”

I have been following the ongoing conversation surrounding the controversy over whether popular internet life coach “Dr.” Cheyenne Bryant actually holds a doctoral degree. Many individuals have questioned her academic credentials and qualifications, including inquiries about the title of her dissertation, the date of her dissertation defense, and transcripts of her doctoral coursework to substantiate her claim of holding a doctorate.

In this post, I would like to explain to the public how the doctoral process works and the tremendous amount of work required to earn a doctoral degree. First, it is important to understand that not all doctoral degrees are the same. There are professional doctorates, which differ from the PhD (Doctor of Philosophy), traditionally regarded as the highest academic degree in most disciplines.

Based on my experience as a former doctoral student and now as the holder of two PhD degrees—my first from the University of Texas at Dallas (PhD in Literary Studies) and my second from the University of Pretoria (PhD in Systematic Theology and Ethics)—I hope to shed light on this important matter and clarify some common misconceptions about the doctoral process.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive examination of doctoral education; rather, it is an overview of the essential stages and requirements typically involved in earning a doctorate or the PhD degree.

Preface

First of all, earning a doctoral degree requires discipline, dedication, determination, perseverance, and an unwavering commitment to completing the process from beginning to end. It is an extraordinarily rigorous, demanding, and intellectually intense journey that often requires years of sacrifice, resilience, and sustained focus. It is more difficult if you have small children or have to work a full time job while working on your doctorate.

While many individuals have successfully completed this academic path, others, unfortunately, have not been able to finish for a variety of personal, financial, academic, or professional reasons. However, if you did not complete your doctoral degree because of personal circumstances or life challenges, that does not make you a failure. Quite simply, the doctoral process is not for everyone, nor does everyone desire to endure the level of pressure, sacrifice, and dedication it demands.

My reflection in this post considers the doctoral system in the United States.

1. Degree Requirements

In most cases, a master’s degree is required for admission into a doctoral program, although some programs admit exceptionally qualified students directly from a bachelor’s degree.

2. Entrance Examinations

Many doctoral programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences require applicants to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). Other disciplines may require different graduate entrance exams.

Other entrance exams to Graduate or Professional schools might include the following:
—GMAT for Business school admission or MBA programs
—LSAT for Law school admission
—MCAT for Medical school admission
—DAT for Dental school admission

3. Grade Point Average (GPA)

Most PhD programs require a competitive GPA, often a minimum of 3.5, for admission consideration. Admission to a doctoral program is often a competitive process.

4. Statement of Purpose

Applicants are generally required to submit a statement of purpose explaining their academic interests, research goals, and reasons for pursuing doctoral study in a specific field such as Medicine, English, History, Biology, Physics, or Theology.

5. Admission Process

After submitting the application packet, a graduate admissions committee evaluates the applicant’s credentials and determines whether to grant or deny admission. Successful applicants receive an official letter of acceptance.

6. Coursework

Traditional PhD programs usually require two to three years of advanced coursework in the student’s chosen discipline. It’s quite a phenomenal process and journey.

7. Comprehensive Examinations

Doctoral students must complete comprehensive or qualifying examinations in several areas of specialization, and in most disciplines, it is three areas of specialization/academic interest. Some universities also require an oral defense component of the field exams.

8. The Doctoral Committee

The doctoral student assembles a committee of scholars and experts who guide the dissertation process. The committee is led by a doctoral supervisor or advisor who oversees the research project from beginning to completion. The relationship between the student and advisor is extremely important because the advisor serves as the primary mentor and specialist in the student’s research area.

9. Prospectus or Dissertation Proposal

After successfully passing comprehensive exams in one’s academic discipline or area of study, the student advances to the dissertation proposal stage. This involves writing a detailed academic document explaining the research topic, methodology, theoretical framework, and significance of the proposed study.

The prospectus is one of the most important documents in the doctoral journey. In some institutions, students must orally defend the proposal before receiving approval to proceed with dissertation research and writing.

Once the prospectus is approved by both the supervisor and committee members, the student is granted permission to begin full dissertation research.

10. Dissertation Research and Writing

I believe this stage is often the most intellectually rewarding aspect of doctoral study for several reasons:

1. The student researches a topic about which he or she is deeply passionate.
2. The student seeks to make an original contribution to knowledge in a particular field or discipline (English, Medicine, Chemistry, Engineering, etc.)
3. The dissertation, as a peer-review and academic document, is written under the supervision and evaluation of qualified scholars and experts: one’s doctoral committee.

The dissertation represents years of research, critical thinking, writing, revision, and scholarly engagement. It’s quite a journey!

11. Dissertation Defense

After the dissertation is completed and approved by the supervisor and committee, the Office of Graduate School or your university schedules the oral defense. Traditionally, this is a formal academic event lasting approximately two hours.

During the defense:

a. The student/doctoral candidate presents and explains the dissertation.
b. Committee members ask questions and evaluate the research and its presentation by the doctoral candidate.
c. The committee deliberates privately.
d. The doctoral candidate is informed whether he or she passed or failed the dissertation.

It is at this stage (“this very moment”) that the title “Doctor” is formally earned academically, and it is publicly announced by your doctoral advisor and affirmed by all the members of your committee.

However, the journey does not end with the defense. Several final administrative and institutional requirements still remain.

12. Official Sign-Off Documents

The advisor and committee members must sign official certification documents confirming that the student has successfully completed and defended the dissertation. These documents are submitted to the Graduate School or Graduate Office for final approval. There is, however, one important document that is usually placed as the first or second page of your dissertation and it is signed in ink by all members of the dissertation committee.

13. Archiving the Dissertation

Once approved by the academic Dean and the Graduate Office of one’s institution, the dissertation is archived in the university library and frequently uploaded to ProQuest, the major international database for doctoral dissertations and theses.

14. Publication and Personal Copies

After the dissertation is successfully submitted to ProQuest, graduates may order bound copies for themselves, family members, or professional use.

15. Graduation and Hooding Ceremony

The final step in the doctoral process is participation in the graduation or hooding ceremony, during which the doctoral advisor publicly confers the doctoral hood upon the graduate.

**This is voluntary. For example, I did not have the opportunity to attend my doctoral graduation ceremony at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Any individual who legitimately holds a doctoral degree will almost certainly possess records of that achievement, including transcripts, dissertation copies, defense documentation, or archived institutional records. Even if personal copies are unavailable, such records are typically preserved within university archives, libraries, ProQuest databases, or official institutional repositories.

***For example, I have bound copies of both my PhD dissertations and maintain both official and unofficial copies of transcripts for both degrees and in all my previous academic degrees.

The purpose of this post is not to attack any individual personally, but rather to educate the public about the rigor, structure, and academic integrity traditionally associated with earning a doctoral degree.

Hope that helps!