Crystal Andrea FELIMA Biography

Ms. Felima is currently completing her Doctorate degree in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. She has a Master’s in Professional Studies degree in Africana Studies from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in African American Studies from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. She has published in the Journal of Haitian Studies and Anthropology News, and has taught two undergraduate courses: Anthropology of Religion and Anthropology of Disasters.

Ms. Felima is a recipient of two Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships to study Haitian Creole. Outside of her academic work, she is co-chair of the International Awareness and Involvement Committee for her alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In northern Haiti, she volunteered with the non-profit Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods and taught English at the New American Institute. She is currently managing a yearlong sorority donation drive to assist women cocoa farmers in northern Haiti. Starting in the fall 2014, Ms. Felima will begin her dissertation research and continue to study Creole and French for 16 months in northern Haiti.

Ms. Felima will work with the Ministry of Haitians Living Abroad (MHAVE).