Arielle Xena Alterwaite

I am a Ph.D. candidate who studies slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic world with a special focus on France and its empire. In spring 2020, I completed my General Examinations in European History, 1650-1914 (Sophia Rosenfeld), Modern Intellectual History (Warren Breckman), Race, Slavery, and Abolition (Kathleen Brown), and Legacies of the Haitian Revolution (Roquinaldo Ferreira). I graduated with honors from Columbia University in 2018 with a B.A. in History and Philosophy. My senior thesis on medical imaginaries and the emergence of biopolitics on eighteenth-century Saint Domingue plantations won the 2018 Lily Prize in history. 

My research, centered on France and Haiti, examines the social, philosophical, and financial cost of abolition and its short and long-term implications for the legacy of colonialism. Specifically, my dissertation, entitled, "Empire of Debt: Haiti and France in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World," inquires into the international significance of the 1825 Haitian Indemnity debt for imperialism, abolition, and finance. I am also interested in alternative archival methodologies, particularly those relating to humor and jokes. My research is supported by both internal and external grants and fellowships, including a Chateaubriand Fellowship and a Mellon IDRF from the Social Science Research Council. 

At Penn, I have co-organized multiple workshops, including our department's Graduate Colloquium, and reading groups. From 2019-20 I served as the Clio co-president, the department's graduate student organization. I currently contribute, as a research specialist, to the collaborative project "The Long Road to Freedom: Biddy Mason’s Remarkable Journey,” which is supported by a collaborative research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Long Road to Freedom is co-directed by Sarah Barringer Gordon (UPenn) and Kevin Waite (University of Durham). 

Prospective students, please feel free to contact me if you have questions about studying at Penn.

Advisor: Sophia Rosenfeld

Committee Members: Warren Breckman, Kathleen Brown, Roquinaldo Ferreira, Sophia Rosenfeld