Félix Jean-Louis
Biography
Félix Jean-Louis, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine. A scholar of Haitian history and the African diaspora, Jean-Louis examines transnational Black activism, Pan-Africanism, and the circulation of ideas across the Caribbean, the Americas, and Africa from the late nineteenth through the twentieth century. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of History at Florida International University in 2020.
Jean-Louis served as an American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellow at UC Irvine from 2020 to 2021. He was also awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Award in the field of History from Florida International University's Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs in 2020. His research has been supported by fellowships including the Dissertation Year Fellowship from Florida International University and the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship for Haitian Kreyòl.
Jean-Louis serves as Chairperson of the Advisory Committee for the "Haitian American Futures Project" at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a project scheduled for completion in 2027. He is a Board Member of the Haitian Studies Association and serves on the Editorial Board of Legs et Littérature: Revue de littérature contemporaine in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Jean-Louis was Executive Producer of the documentary The Forgotten Occupation: Jim Crow Goes to Haiti, which received Best Documentary at the Haitian Film Festival in 2023.
Return to topEducation
- Ph.D. in History, Florida International University, 2020
- BA in History, Florida State University, 2007
- AA in Liberal Arts, Hillsborough Community College, 2005
Distinctions
- American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellow, 2020-2021
- W.E.B. Du Bois Center Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2020
- Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) for Haitian Kreyòl, 2014-2015
- Best Documentary, Haitian Film Festival for The Forgotten Occupation: Jim Crow Goes to Haiti, 2023
- Outstanding Dissertation Award, Field of History, Florida International University, 2020
- Dissertation Year Fellowship, Florida International University, 2019
- Doctoral Evidence Acquisition Fellowship, 2017
Areas of Expertise
- Afro-Caribbean Transnational History
- Pan-Africanist Internationalism
- Haitian Missionary Work
- Racial Capitalism
- Global Blackness
- Gang Violence in Haiti
- French Imperialism Resistance
Recent Publications
- Félix Jean-Louis, “Review of White Gloves, Black Nation: Women, Political Citizenship and Political Wayfaring in Haiti”, American Historical Review, vol. 130, no. 1, pp. 363-363, 2025.
- Félix Jean-Louis, “Midwifing Pan-Africanist Internationalism: Benito Sylvain, Africa, and the Work of Rejuvenating the Race”, Caribbean Studies, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 21-58, 2024.
- Félix Jean-Louis, “Review of Panama in Black: Afro Caribbean World Making in the Twentieth Century by Kaysha Corinealdi”, Journal of American History, vol. 110, no. 4, pp. 792, 2024.
- Félix Jean-Louis, “Review of Cultural Entanglements: Langston Hughes and the Rise of African and Caribbean Literature, by Shane Graham”, New West Indian Guide, vol. 96, no. 1-2, pp. 89-90, 2022.
- Félix Jean-Louis, “Double Consciousness and Missionary Work: James Theodore Holly and the Establishment of the Episcopalian Church of Haiti”, Global Protestant Missions: Politics, Reform and Communication,1730s-1930s, Routledge Press, pp. 111-133, 2019.
- Félix Jean-Louis, “Review of The Worlds of Langston Hughes: Modernism and Translation in the Americas by Vera Kutzinski”, The CLR James Journal, vol. 21, pp. 176-183, 2015.
Contact Information
Email: fjeanlou@uci.edu
Address: 243 Humanities Instructional - HIB, Irvine, CA 92697
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Last updated on 2/20/2026.