Dominican Studies Scholar

The Dominican Studies Scholar Initiative aims to increase the number of faculty engaged in Dominican Studies scholarship at the City University of New York as a whole. Prof. Gregory Duff Morton serves as the Dominican Studies Scholar for the 2022-2025 period. During these three years, Prof. Morton splits his time between the CUNY DSI and the Department of Anthropology, Gender Studies, and International Studies at City College.

Current Dominican Studies Scholar

Gregory Duff Morton is an economic anthropologist and social worker. He studies the movements of money throughout the Americas. Currently, Prof. Morton is researching the long-term pathways along which migrants send their cash, with a particular focus on the Excluded Worker Fund, a one-time payment received by some undocumented New Yorkers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. Morton also participates in an team of DSI researchers who investigate the Dominican heritage of New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Prof. Morton’s most extended research project is in Northeastern Brazil. There, he studies the cash that migrant workers carry home in their pockets, the wages disbursed by the owners of coffee plantations, and the payouts that come from the world’s largest welfare program. Prof. Morton has a special interest in social movements. A key example, for him, is the MST, Brazil’s landless movement, which brings small farmers together to occupy plantations. Prof. Morton is also concerned with the practical questions that social service providers ask themselves as they strive to respond to contexts of pronounced inequality. In all of these projects, Prof. Morton strives for a comparative approach, considering the parallels between Brazil and the Caribbean, aiming to illuminate the common dilemmas and achievements that define the Americas.

Previous Dominican Studies Scholar

Sandy Placido is an assistant professor in the History Department at Queens College and was a Dominican Studies Scholar at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (2018-2021). She received her Ph.D. from the American Studies Program at Harvard University. Her research and teaching examine social movements in the Americas, with a special focus on the contributions of women and people of African and Caribbean descent. Her book manuscript "A Global Vision: Dr. Ana Livia Cordero and the Puerto Rican Liberation Struggle" emphasizes the influential role of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in Cold War-era freedom struggles by centering the life of Ana Livia Cordero, a physician who forged connections between anti-imperialist movements across the Third World. Placido worked to preserve Cordero's archival collection at Harvard's Schlesinger Library, and she has received support for her research from the Ford and Mellon Foundations.

Last Updated: 03/27/2023 10:53