Nathan H. Dize

  • Visiting Assistant Professor of French

Areas of Study

Education

  • PhD, French studies, Vanderbilt University, 2021
  • MA, French studies, Vanderbilt University, 2020
  • MA; modern French studies; University of Maryland, College Park; 2016
  • BA; French language and literature, English language and literature; University of Maryland, College Park; 2013
  • Certificate, Latin American Studies, Cum Laude, University of Maryland, College Park, 2013

Biography

Nathan H. Dizeis a teacher, scholar, and translator of Haitian and Francophone Caribbean literature. His work is situated at the crossroads of literary and intellectual history, cultural studies, translation studies, and the digital humanities. Nathan is particularly interested in how literature enables Haitians to practice intimate and collective rites of mourning across generations and beyond national borders. His current book project, Resting Places: Haitian Literature and the Practice of Mourning is a study of how Haitian authors use literature and literary practices like archiving, editing, publishing, and translation to frame personal and collective grief as well as to designate a place where the memories of loved ones may lay in rest.

Nathan is the translator of three Haitian novels: The Immortals by Makenzy Orcel (SUNY Press, 2020), I Am Alive by Kettly Mars (UVA Press, forthcoming), and Antoine des Gommiers by Lyonel Trouillot (Schaffner Press, forthcoming). He has written or translated for publications such as archipelagos, Caribbean Quarterly, the Journal of Haitian Studies, LitHub, sx salon, and Words Without Borders. He is also a founding member of the kwazman vwa collective, which amplifies the work of emerging Caribbean authors, and a member of the Editorial Board of Reading in Translation.

He is the content curator, translator, and coeditor of the digital history project A Colony in Crisis: The Saint-Domingue Grain Shortage of 1789. With Siobhan Meï, he coedits the “Haiti in Translation” interview series for H-Haiti. He is also a member of the digital history project Rendering Revolution: Sartorial Approaches to Haitian History.

In 2021–22, Nathan will teach French language courses at the beginner and intermediate levels as well as an advanced survey of Francophone Caribbean women’s literature entitled “Order, Disorder, and Freedom in Women's Caribbean Literature.”

  • “‘Proof(s) of Memory’: Massillon Coicou, Marie Chauvet, and Transgressive Mourning Under Totalitarianism” Caribbean Quarterly. (Forthcoming)
  • “The Persistence of Félicité Kina in the World of the Haitian Revolution: Kinship, Gender, and Everyday Resistance.” The Routledge Companion to Black Women’s Cultural Histories: Across the Diaspora, from Ancient Times to the Present. Ed. Janell Hobson. New York: Routledge, 2021.
  •  “‘Comment écrire en évitant d’exotiser le malheur ?’ : L’apocalypse et le retour au quotidien dans Je suis vivant de Kettly Mars.” Francosphères 7.1 (July 2018): 71-85.
  • “Beyond the Morality Tale of Humanitarianism: Epistolary Narration and Montage in Raoul Peck’s Assistance mortelle.” Journal of Haitian Studies 23.1: (Spring 2017) 75-95.

Prose

  • Lyonel Trouillot. Antoine of Gommiers. Tucson, AZ: Schaffner Press. (Forthcoming Fall 2022). 
  • Kettly Mars. I Am Alive. with an Introduction by Kaiama L. Glover. Afterword by Kettly Mars. Charlottesville: UVA Press. (Forthcoming Fall 2022).
  • Makenzy Orcel. The Immortals. Albany: SUNY Press, 2020.

Poetry 

Fall 2022

Français élémentaire I — FREN 101
Zombies and Spirits in the Caribbean — FREN 365

Spring 2023

Français élémentaire II — FREN 102
Mourning in Haitian Literature — FREN 403

Notes

Nathan H. Dize Mentioned on NPR

November 16, 2022

Visiting Professor of French Nathan H. Dize was mentioned on NPR's All Things Considered for his translation of I Am Alive by Haitian writer Kettly Mars, which was released with the University of Virginia Press in September.

Nathan H. Dize Translation Published in "Southwest Review"

October 12, 2022

Visiting Assistant Professor of French Nathan H. Dize has published a translation of Makenzy Orcel's story "The Totality of Absence" in the Southwest Review's "Horror Issue." The issue was edited by 2022 National Book Award nominees, Sarah Booker and Mónica Ojeda.

Nathan Dize Publishes Translation of a Novel by Kettly Mars

September 12, 2022

Visiting Assistant Professor of French Nathan H. Dize published I Am Alive, a translation of a novel by Kettly Mars. The novel tells the story of a bourgeois Haitian family as it wrestles with issues of mental illness, unconventional sexuality, and the difficulty of returning home and rediscovery following the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Nathan H. Dize Discusses Translation of Haitian Literature in Podcast

March 31, 2022

Visiting Assistant Professor of French Nathan H. Dize was recently featured on the Nèg/Fanm Mawon Podcast to talk about translating Haitian literature, Haitian Creole and French, and the creative process. He discusses his 2020 translation of Makenzy Orcel's The Immortals with host Patrick Jean-Baptiste.

Nathan H. Dize Elected to the Modern Language Association's CLCS Caribbean Executive Forum

February 4, 2022

Visiting Assistant Professor of French Nathan H. Dize has been elected to the Modern Language Association's CLCS Caribbean executive forum for a five-year term.

Nathan Dize Interviews Haitian Writer Kettly Mars

January 27, 2022

Nathan Dize, Visiting Assistant Professor of French, interviewed Haitian writer Kettly Mars about the influence of the 2010 earthquake on her life and literature for Words Without Borders. Dize's translation of Mars's novel "I Am Alive" has been named a 'most anticipated book of 2022" by Words Without Borders and will be released by the University of Virginia Press in Fall 2022.

Nathan H. Dize publishes an excerpt of  I Am Alive, a novel he is translating

October 4, 2021

Visiting Assistant Professor of French Nathan H. Dize publishes an excerpt of  I Am Alive, a novel he is translating by the Haitian writer Kettly Mars. Dize's translation appears in the September issue of Words Without Borders, which is presenting new fiction to honor the centenary of PEN International, an association dedicated to the support of global literature and letters in spite of political or international upheavals. I Am Alive is about a wealthy Haitian family thrown into chaos by an unexpected return and is set for release in Fall 2022.


 

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