Samuel Martínez

Director, El Instituto

Professor, Anthropology

Samuel Martínez is a Cuban-born ethnologist. In 2016, he was awarded the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) President’s Award for outstanding service to the Association. He has served as Program Chair for the 2016 AAA Annual Meeting, been a member of the board of the American Ethnological Society (AES, 2010-2014), and organized the AES’ 2014 Spring Meeting in collaboration with the Society for Visual Anthropology. He has also served as Chair (2003-04) of the American Anthropological Association’s Committee for Human Rights.

His main area of research expertise is the migrant and minority rights mobilizations of undocumented Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent. Martínez contributed an extensive expert affidavit in support of the landmark case of Yean and Bosico v. Dominican Republic presented before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2005. He is the author of two ethnographic monographs and several peer-reviewed articles on the migration and labor and minority rights of Haitian nationals and people of Haitian ancestry in the Dominican Republic. He is also editor of a contributory volume, International Migration and Human Rights (U California Press, 2009) and co-editor of three journal special issues.

In his current research and writing, he brings critical scrutiny to the writings of northern human rights monitors, journalists and social scientists about Haitian-ancestry people in the Dominican Republic. He is also writing a book on the discourse and visual culture of antislavery in the late 20th & early 21st centuries. And with support from the Public Discourse Project of the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, Martínez is organizing a conference and contributory volume examining the schismatic tendency of today’s anti-trafficking/antislavery representation.