Pre-book launch: Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic

At this pre-launch of her first book, “Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic: From Citizen to Foreigner”, Dr Hayes de Kalaf will present the definitive analysis of the events leading up to the controversial 2013 Constitutional Tribunal ruling which rendered the plaintiff Juliana Deguis Pierre stateless. The publication identifies a connection between the role of international actors in promulgating the universal provision of legal identity and links these with arbitrary measures to restrict access to citizenship paperwork from populations of (largely, but not exclusively) Haitian descent. The book includes in-depth interviews with citizens across the country and living overseas of their experiences of recent en masse registration drives. It provides a timely critique of global policy measures which aim to provide all people, everywhere with a legal identity in the run-up to the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr Eve Hayes de Kalaf

Eve has an extensive academic and professional background working in Latin America and the Caribbean. She obtained a distinction in a PGDip in Human Development with the United Nations in 2010 and a Master’s degree at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London in 2011. She completed her PhD in Latin American Studies from the University of Aberdeen in 2018. Eve is currently this year’s Stipendiary Fellow at the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), Institute of Modern Languages Research at the University of London and an honorary fellow at the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Liverpool. Her conference “(Re)Imagining Belonging in Latin America and Beyond: Access to Citizenship, Digital Identity and Rights” will take place at CLACS on 23 June. Link here.

‘Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic: From Citizen to Foreigner’ (August 2021) is published by Anthem Press as part of the Anthem Series in Citizenship and National Identities