The seminar, being held one year after the earthquake, will take place Monday, Jan. 10, from 9am to 5pm, in the Harry Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson Building, Keele campus. It is hosted by 91亚色鈥檚 School of Administrative Studies Disaster & Emergency Management Program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies in collaboration with .

Right: The earthquake in Haiti caused widespread damage. Photo by Marco Dormino of the United Nations

It聽will look at what lessons can be learned from the Haiti earthquake and how societal resilience, humanitarian response and the handling of similar future events can be improved. The Haiti earthquake presented a special challenge for first-response practitioners, emergency managers, researchers, educators and those responsible for capacity building because of its setting, the scale of the initial event and its impact on a particularly vulnerable urbanized area of a fragile state.

Michael Morton of Emergency Management Ontario and Jeff Noel, a logistical officer with the Salvation Army, will discuss first response, search and rescue, emergency operations coordination, mobilization and logistical issues as part of the first panel.

In the second panel, Jean Claude Louis of Panos Canada and the Caribbean will join Heather Leson of Crisis Camp Toronto and Ken Kidd of the Toronto Star in looking at the 鈥淩ole of the Local, National and International Media; Communication Challenges; Reality, Myths聽and Perception Issues鈥�.

John Coo of Green Cross Canada will discuss the topic of 鈥淓nvironmental, Critical Services, Health and Sanitation Issues, Urban Management and Built Environment Challenges鈥� in the third panel.

In the fourth panel, the topic of 鈥淢anaging the Transition and Recovery, Coping with the Displaced/Refugees, Rehabilitation and Recovery Issues鈥� will be tackled Mike Weickert of World Vision Canada and Stephen Evans, associate chair of the University of Waterloo鈥檚 Earth & Environmental Sciences.

For more information or to register, visit seminar website or e-mail haiti@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

The post What can we learn Haiti's earthquake to better prepare for future disasters? appeared first on Research & Innovation.

When 91亚色 grad Julia Gaffield (MA 鈥�07) saw those words at the top of a document in a 200-year-old file at The National Archives in London, England, she knew immediately she had found something special and wanted to shout for joy 鈥� but one simply doesn鈥檛 do that sort of thing in the quiet of the reading room at 鈥淭he NA鈥�. She stifled her cry and carried on poring over the rest of the hidden treasures she had before her.

Left: Gaffield with an image of the long-lost document in background

The find, an odd little eight-page pamphlet included in a collection of correspondence from a British colonial official, was an original copy of Haiti鈥檚 Declaration of Independence, printed by the new government three weeks after Independence Day, Jan. 1, 1804. It is the only known copy of the document, which scholars have been searching for since the 1950s, when the nation of descendants of slaves and free people of colour was making plans to celebrate its 150th anniversary of independence.

Since that day in February, the has appeared in newspapers and on Web sites around the world and she has done dozens of interviews. Interest in the document prompted staff at The National Archives to post a on its Web site.

Gaffield, now聽pursuing her doctorate at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina,聽said she found a reference to the declaration in a letter she saw while doing research in Jamaica. That document was a copy of a letter from Edward Corbet, HM Agent for British Affairs in Santo Domingo, to Sir George Nugent, lieutenant-governor of Jamaica, on Jan. 25, 1804, regarding his negotiations with Jean Jacques Dessalines, governor general and first ruler of Haiti. Gaffield made a note of the reference to the declaration, which the writer said had just come off the press.

When she got to The National Archives in England and saw the same letter, Gaffield recalled it had mentioned the missing declaration. When she flipped the page, there was the document itself, with the text AU PORT-AU-PRINCE, De l鈥檌mprimerie du GOUVERNEMENT on the back, signifying that this was one of the original printed copies and not a later reproduction.

Haiti was only the second country in the new world to declare independence, the first being the United States of America, 28 years earlier.

Gaffield, whose father is a history professor at the University of Ottawa, almost never started on the career path that led to her discovery. As an undergraduate and basketball player at the University of Toronto, she had planned on studying physiotherapy. But her first foray into an archive convinced her to change those plans and she chose to come to 91亚色 for graduate studies. 鈥�91亚色 is a great school and it鈥檚 booming at this moment,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 wanted to be in a place that was growing and not afraid to take chances.鈥� Gaffield also noted 91亚色鈥檚 Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean as a factor in her decision.

After taking a survey course on Caribbean history, Gaffield went to Haiti to do some volunteer work. That was in 2004, the year that Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country鈥檚 first democratically elected president, was ousted in a rebellion.

Gaffield鈥檚 doctoral research focuses on the early years of Haiti鈥檚 independence and the different relationships it had with the international community. Those relationships, which helped the tiny nation sustain its independence, were surprising because Haiti was such a challenge to the economy of slavery, which wasn鈥檛 outlawed in Britain until 30 years later. It was another 31 years 鈥� and a civil war 鈥� before it was also outlawed in the US.

Her choice to continue her research at Duke University was based on working with her supervisor, Laurent Dubois, who was headed there to teach French and Caribbean history and culture.

The reaction to her discovery has brought Gaffield a flood of responses. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 really great are the messages on Facebook from Haitians and Haitian Americans expressing their joy,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been amazing to hear that my research 鈥� and historical research in general 鈥� can have such an influence.鈥�

To watch interviews with Gaffield聽and see聽a translation of the document, visit the .

By David Fuller, YFile contributing writer. Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post 91亚色 grad and alumna discovers Haiti's long-lost Declaration of Independence appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Sitting at a quiet table in the National Archives in London earlier this year, Canadian graduate student Julia Gaffield (MA 鈥�07) opened a bound book of documents from 1804 and unearthed the only known printed copy of Haiti鈥檚 Declaration of Independence, wrote :

鈥淚 was surrounded by complete strangers who were all very wrapped up in their own work,鈥� the 26-year-old said yesterday. 鈥淚nside I was bursting with excitement, but I鈥檓 not sure if anyone else in there would have been interested."

But her discovery, which comes more than 200 years after the document was signed and ends decades of historical sleuthing intent on its recovery, could not come at a more poignant moment for the nation of Haiti, still reeling from the latest blow to its national identity. Struck by a devastating earthquake in January, the country is struggling to rebuild, and historians say the document will serve as a much-needed reminder of what has already been overcome.

Haiti was the first slave colony to win independence when it fought off its French colonial rulers, culminating with its revolutionary leader, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declaring independence on Jan. 1, 1804. In the weeks that followed, his statement and the Deed of Independence were printed in an eight-page brochure under the title 鈥�Libert茅 ou la Mort鈥�. But while the documents were widely distributed at the time, no copy was known to have survived until Gaffield鈥檚 discovery in February.

Gaffield did her master鈥檚 degree at 91亚色 and is now in the third year of her PhD research at in North Carolina.

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post 91亚色 grad finds Haiti's lost Declaration of Independence appeared first on Research & Innovation.