Greg Beckett
Anthropologist, Professor, Writer
I am a cultural anthropologist with over twenty years of experience researching Haitian history, society, culture, and politics.
Background
I studied anthropology at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Chicago. I have taught in the US and Canada and am now an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Western Ontario.
My research
I am interested in how people make sense of crisis, how they “look for life” amid difficult circumstances, and how they think about the past and imagine possible futures. My current research is on the “everyday logistics” of getting around Port-au-Prince.
My writing
I am the author of the ethnography There Is No More Haiti: Between Life and Death in Port-au-Prince and co-editor of Trouillot Remixed: The Michel-Rolph Trouillot Reader. My academic writing has appeared in numerous journals (click on Academic Writing for PDFs). Below are links to recent articles and essays.
Haiti’s Political Impasse, NACLA, June 27, 2025
Haiti on the brink: Gangs fill power vacuum as current solutions fail a nation in crisis, The Conversation, June 16, 2025
Interview on CBC News, March 13, 2024
The world needs to let Haiti write its own story, Globe and Mail, Dec 15, 2022
Haiti Beyond Crisis (blog series, co-edited with Laura Wagner), Cultural Anthropology Hot Spots, May 3, 2022
Haiti’s blackouts are both electrical and emotional, Sapiens, Oct 28, 2019
Haiti at the Crossroads, NACLA, March 6, 2019
Routine blackouts in Haiti symbolize a loss of political power for its citizens, The Conversation, Feb 7, 2019
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Greg Beckett 