Michel-Rolph Trouillot

[5] Trouillot has been one of the most influential thinkers of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, because he developed wide-ranging academic work centered on Caribbean issues.

His father, Ernst Trouillot, a lawyer and professor at a prestigious lycee, hosted a television show about Haitian history as part of his academic contributions.

His family was also politically inclined; Trouillot's stepmother, Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, a well-known lawyer and judge, was named interim president in 1990 as the country stabilized and prepared for the democratic elections.

Before beginning scholarly study, he was a songwriter and activist involved in political protest against the Duvalier dynasty in Haiti and against the American government's treatment of undocumented Haitian immigrants.

[6] In 1968, Trouillot left Haiti as part of the large wave of student activists fleeing the repression of Duvalier dictatorship.

[6][9] In 1978, Trouillot left Brooklyn to enroll in the anthropology program at Johns Hopkins University, where he completed his Ph.D, and began his career as an anthropologist.

[1] He was one of the most original, disciplinary, innovative and thoughtful voices in academia because his theoretical frameworks expanded to social science knowledge in Caribbean studies.

[1][2] He published Les racines historiques de l’état duvaliérien, which later appeared in English as Haiti: State Against Nation.