A radical philosophical reflection on the Western Reference
LADIREP Seminar • 26 December 2026
By Shakespeare EMILE
On December 26, 2026, the Laboratory of Languages, Speeches and Representations (LADIREP) will welcome Dr.EdelynDorismond for a conference that promises to push the very foundations of contemporary decolonial thought. Under title « Decolonizing the Creolization and Rewrite of the Western Reference », this Haitian philosopher proposes a bold reflection that questions the limits of slippery thought and opens new perspectives to think intellectual and political emancipation of Caribbean societies.
The LADIREP: a laboratory at the heart of Caribbean dynamics
Since its creation, the Laboratory of Languages, Speeches and Representations (LADIREP) has established itself as a leading intellectual and scientific space for the analysis and understanding of the profound transformations that go through Haiti and the Caribbean. LADIREP is multi-disciplinary, both in terms of its objectives and its vocation and its approach to the construction of its study object. It brings together researchers from social anthropology, philosophy, history, linguistics and psychosociology, all driven by the same ambition: to grasp the complexity of the processes of social construction at work in a changing region.
One of the strengths of the LADIREP laboratory is its ability to articulate different analytical scales. These main researches concern as well as phenomena of Haitian national reality as on mobility, exchanges and flows of ideas, goods and individuals on a Caribbean scale. This multiscalar approach allows us not to lock Haiti in an island reading, but to think of it as a node in a regional network of cultural productions and social processes.
A tradition of scientific excellence
Evaluated in January 2015 by a commission of international experts, LADIREP obtained the authorisation of the Doctoral College of Haiti to host doctoral students. This institutional recognition reflects the scientific rigour that characterizes the work carried out within the laboratory. The LADIREP does not just produce knowledge, it establishes within it the principle of peer evaluation while providing a training space for the new generation of Haitian and Caribbean researchers, thus ensuring the transmission and renewal of questions, teaching-learning of scientific methods/methodologies.
Research seminars: a space for intellectual and scientific debate
At the heart of the scientific life of LADIREP are the organization of conferences, study days, seminars and research seminars, real spaces for exchange, intellectual confrontation and interdisciplinary dialogue between junior and senior researchers. These regular meetings allow us to invite renowned researchers like emerging researchers to present their work in progress and to submit them to the reactions and criticisms of their peers. It is in this tradition of excellence that Dr. Edelyn Dorismond's intervention, whose bold thinking promises to fuel fruitful debates on contemporary issues of intellectual decolonization, takes place.
Dr. Edelyn Dorismond: portrait of a committed philosopher
Edelyn Dorismond embodies a singular intellectual figure in the Haitian and Caribbean philosophical landscape. Doctor of Philosophy, Co-Director of Research Dominican Republic, Vice-President of CRENEL (Centre de Recherches Norms, Interchanges et Langage), member of the LADIREP and attached to the LLCP of the Department of Philosophy of the University of Paris 8, his journey bears witness to a deep anchor in international academic networks, while remaining firmly rooted in Haitian and Caribbean issues.
A demanding intellectual and scientific journey
From 2016 to 2022, Edelyn Dorismond held the position of programme director at the International College of Philosophy (CIPh), a prestigious institution founded at the initiative of Jacques Derrida, which aims to promote innovative philosophical research beyond traditional academic frameworks. This Parisian experience has undoubtedly fed his reflection on the modes of circulation and legitimization of philosophical knowledge at the international level.
Currently teaching at the State University of Haiti (Campus Henry Christophe), Dorismond embodies this intellectual come-and-go between European academic centers and Caribbean spaces of knowledge production. His doctoral thesis, devoted to a conceptual grasp of modern slavery in the Caribbean according to the requirements of philosophy, bears witness to his ambition: to think of the Caribbean experience not as a mere object of anthropological or historical study, but as a philosophical place in its own right, capable of producing new concepts and questioning the categories inherited from Western tradition.
Innovative research axes
Edelyn Dorismond's work revolves around several major axes that feed each other:
- The dynamics of Caribbean societies : how to understand the social, political and cultural transformations that work in contemporary Caribbean societies?
- Experience of diversity What new problems do the social sciences face in the political and social experience of diversity in post-slavery contexts marked by the forced encounter of populations of multiple origins?
- The memory conflict : how do you think the coexistence, sometimes conflictual, of different memories linked to the encounter of cultural agents in the Caribbean space?
- The political philosophy of minorities How can we reformulate the question of political philosophy in the light of the demands of minority groups?
An already substantial work
Edelyn Dorismond's intellectual production reflects a reflection that is both systematic and rooted in contemporary debates. His major publications include:
The age of mixedness. Variations on Creolization: Politics, Ethics and Philosophy of Diversity (Paris, Anibwé, 2013), where he developed the concept of « diversity » to think about the political and ethical forms of creolization.
The Haitian Problem. Test on the coloniality of the Haitian state (Port-au-Prince, Éditions Étoile Polaire, 2020), a critical analysis of colonial structures that continue to structure the postcolonial Haitian state.
Memory and history. The postcolonial Haitian experience. Tribute to Michel-Rolph Trouillot_ (Press of the State University of Haiti, 2020), which is part of the wake of Haitian anthropologist to think the complex relationship between collective memory and history writing.
To these works are added numerous articles in leading scientific journals on creolization, the philosophy of history, natural disasters and their existential dimension, or the circulation of French thought (Deleuze, Derrida) in the work of Édouard Glissant.
Decolonizing Creolization: an ambitious and radical philosophical proposal
The conference that Edelyn Dorismond is about to deliver at LADIREP is an important moment in the evolution of Caribbean decolonial thinking. Her very title, « Decolonizing the Creolization and Rewrite of the Western Reference », indicates the scope of the project: it is not just a question of criticizing colonial domination, but of subjecting to critical examination the conceptual tools that we mobilize to think about emancipation.
The title trap: clarifying ambiguity
Dorismond begins by recognizing that the title of his speech « confusing ». Indeed, formulated in this way, it might suggest that decolonization should involve both the creolization and the rewriting of Western imagination. He said, « decolonisation is precisely about creolization ». This clarification is essential: it is not Creolisation which is a tool for decolonization, but Creolisation itself which must be decolonized.
This bold proposal is based on one observation: the thought of creolization, as developed in particular by Édouard Glissant, despite his criticism of the metaphysics of the One and his celebration of diversity, remains trapped in certain structures of thought inherited from Western tradition. In other words, slippery creolization would not have gone far enough in its break with the West.
The Reference : key concept of Pierre Legendre
To understand Dorismond's argument, we must first grasp what he means by « Reference ». He borrows this concept from French jurist and psychoanalyst Pierre Legendre, whose work has revealed an anthropological-theological and legal system at the heart of Western civilization. According to Legendre, the Reference was imposed in Romano-Christian tradition as a specific mode of « management of desire by law ».
This management is based on a fundamental symbolic montage: « father » as a third instance, embodied in the figure of the Pope. The Pope, as « father of fathers »represents the ultimate authority that guarantees the law, legitimates power and structures the social order. This paternal figure is not simply a metaphor: it is the backbone of a system of legitimation that crosses the entire Western legal and political culture.
« The Reference holds its montage from the invention of the ‘father' (the pope). In the thought of Glissant, despite the criticisms of the metaphysics of the one, the law in its function of government of desire remains unchanged. »
The limit of Sliding: Silence over God
This is where Dorismond identifies a major gap in slippery thinking. Glossant has brilliantly deconstructed the metaphysics of the « One », celebrated the multiple, theorized the « poetics of the Relation » and« bursting of desire in the fields of encounter ». Yet, says Dorismond, « the law in its function of government of desire, remains unchanged ». Consequently, it continues to « maintain his or her assurance of the presence of the father or of a ».
The diagnosis is severe: « Everything happens, despite the diversity, under the impassive gaze of the Christian God. » Glissant never really questioned the question of God and his relationship to diversity. It notes that Creole companies are « with plural origins », but he does not question what « holds together a ‘Creole order' ». In other words, Glissant would have saved a reflection on the symbolic basis of social order in Creole societies.
The project: Rewrite the Reference
Faced with this limit, Dorismond proposes a radical philosophical gesture: « Rewrite Reference ». It is not just a question of criticizing or rejecting it, but of reconfiguring it in depth. This rewriting implies « the defeat of the figure of the father-pap, guarantor of the law, power and authority of domination ».
But how do we proceed? Dorismond's proposal is bold: « make it burst into a kind of polytheism, understood as lack of reference, paternity strategy and not absence or presence of the father. » It is therefore not a question of simply denying the paternal function or the need for a third body regulating desire. Rather, it is a matter of moving from a monotheistic logic, centred on a single and transcendent Father, to a polytheistic logic, characterized by a multiplicity of references and legitimization strategies.
« Rewrite the Reference, undo it from the figure of the father-pape to break it into a kind of polytheism, understood as lack of reference, strategy of paternity and not absence or presence of the father. »
Creole countermetaphysics
If this rewriting is carried out, says Dorismond, « Creolization becomes a veritable counter-metaphysics of unity, power, domination and a pragmatic of existence that is built by ‘many ways and opportunities'. » This wording deserves to be deployed:
- Countermetaphysics of unity : Creolization thus redesigned does not simply celebrate diversity as an empirical fact, but it is a metaphysical alternative to Western tradition which, since Parmenide, favours One over Multiple.
- Countermetaphysics of power By decentralizing the figure of the Father as the sole source of authority, this creolization opens the possibility of less vertical, less concentrated, more distributed forms of power.
- Counter-metaphysics of domination : polytheistic logic implies the absence of an instance of absolute domination, which better corresponds to the forms of social organization observable in Creole societies.
- Pragmatic of existence : rather than a fixed essence or a predetermined destiny, Creole existence is built in a contingent way, by « ways and opportunities », according to meetings and circumstances.
From decolonization to decolonization
Dorismond also proposes an important conceptual distinction between « decolonization » and « decolonization ». Decolonization, in the classical sense, refers to the political and legal process through which the colonies gained formal independence in the twentieth century. Decolonization, on the other hand, refers to a deeper and longer process: one that aims to undo the symbolic and epistemic structures of colonial domination.
As Dorismond writes, decolonisation « is an approach that takes more responsibility for the symbolic forms of slave dominations and their modes of symbolization at work in creolization. » It is therefore not enough to achieve political independence; We must transform in depth the imaginations, the structures of thought and the modes of legitimation that continue to reproduce relations of domination inherited from slavery and colonization.
Policy and existential issues
Dorismond's proposal is not just an academic exercise. It carries considerable existential and political challenges for Caribbean societies. Indeed, if Creolization remains a prisoner of the Western theological-political structure (the Father-Pap as guarantor of order), then Creole societies will remain unable to truly think themselves and build truly alternative political forms.
Conversely, a truly decolonized creolization based on a polytheistic logic of the Reference would open the possibility of forms of social organization, of regulating desire and of legitimizing power that would be endogenous to Caribbean societies, rather than imported from the Western matrix.
« Creolization becomes a veritable counter-metaphysics of unity, power, domination and a pragmatic of existence that is built by ‘manuals and occasions'. »
A long thought
The conference of Edelyn Dorismond promises to be a strong intellectual moment in the life of LADIREP and, beyond that, in contemporary debates on the decolonization of thought. By proposing to subject Creolisation itself to decolonial criticism, Dorismond made a philosophical gesture of great audacity: he refused the ease that would be to celebrate creolization without nuance as a miracle solution to the problems posed by the colonial heritage.
His proposal – rewriting the Reference by breaking it in a polytheistic logic – is an ambitious research programme that engages both political philosophy and anthropology, psychoanalysis and the history of religions. It calls for a profound rethinking of the symbolic foundations of social order in Creole societies and, more broadly, in all societies derived from colonial experience.
Beyond conceptual rigour and philosophical scholarship, what strikes in Dorismond's approach is his existential and political reach. It is not a question of producing an abstract theory, but of contributing to the intellectual and practical emancipation of Caribbean societies. It is this articulation between the theoretical requirement and political commitment that makes this emerging thought very interesting.
The discussions following this conference will undoubtedly clarify certain aspects of this proposal, test its argumentative strength and explore its implications. One thing is certain: by daring to ask the question of the decolonisation of Creolization, EdelynDorismond opens a major intellectual site for the Caribbean thought of the 21st century.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION ON THE CONFERENCE
Date : 26 December 2026
Location : LADIREP (Languages, Speeches and Representations Laboratory)
Link : https://tinyurl.com/seminardeladirep1
Link to the seminar:
https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3AG1tO6vssAyD2zDfGwv4sZTTf1aVzPt3AbyX37WlYxVY1%40thread. tacv2%2F1738761460754%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%2522687b1e1-4264-4f8d-8528-d5e3f4e6a8a6%2522%252c%2
Speaker : Dr. Edelyn DORISMOND
Theme : « Decolonizing the Creolization and Rewrite of the Western Reference »
Public : Researchers, PhD students, teachers and students in the social sciences and humanities
Keywords : Creolization• Decolonization• Decolonization• Desire • Law • Paternity • Reference • Slide • Legend • Caribbean philosophy
References
Works by Edelyn Dorismond
Dorismond, E. (2013). The age of mixedness. Variations on creolization: politics, ethics and philosophy of diversity. Paris: Anibwé.
Dorismond, E. (2020). The Haitian Problem. An essay on the coloniality of the Haitian state. Port-au-Prince : Editions Étoile Polaire.
Dorismond, E. (2020). Memory and history. The postcolonial Haitian experience. Tribute to Michel-Rolph Trouillot.Port-au-Prince: Presses of the State University of Haiti.
Articles and chapters of Edelyn Dorismond
Dorismond, E (2009). The creolisation of politics, the policy of creolisation: « unthinked » in the work of Edward Gliding. Sens Public Review, No. 11/12, « Malaise in capitalism ».
Dorismond, E (2010). The Haitian Creole in the future world of the « globalization ». Journal Études Créoles, « About Haiti ». Paris: L-Harmattan.
Dorismond E. (2012). Exist in disasters. Pain and identity. In J.-D. Rainhorn (ed.), Haiti. Reinvent the future (pp. [n.p.]). Paris: House of Human Sciences and Presses of the State University of Haiti.
Dorismond, E. (2013a). The figures of Caribbean diversity. An outline « political philosophy » of the « diversity ». In G. Navet & S. Villavicencio (ed.), Figures of heterogeneity and cultural diversity (pp. [n.p.]). Paris: L-Harmattan.
Dorismond, E. (2013b). Is Creolization a philosophy of history? Colonial history of the West Indies, globalization and globalization. The Rings of Memory.
Dorismond E. (2014). Earth phenomenology and philosophical anthropology of the consequences of the earthquake. In L. Hurbon (ed.), Disasters and environment. Haiti, earthquake of 12 January 2010 (pp. [n.p.]). Paris: EHESS.
Dorismond, E. (2020c). Creolization and community. Various and political republic of the meeting. In F. Noudelmann, F. Simasotchi-Bonès & Y. Thomas (dir.), Archipelos Glissant (pp. [n.p.]). Vincennes : University Presses of Vincennes.
Dorismond, E. (2020d). The philosophy of history tested by Caribbean societies. In Philosopher in the Caribbean, Journal Cahiers critiques de philosophie, n° 20.
Dorismond, E. ([n.d.]). How Deleuze and Derrida travel in the slippery thought of creolization. Revue Rue Descartes, n° 78, pp. 34-47.
Conceptual references
Slipper, E. (1990). Poetic Relation. Paris: Gallimard.
Slipper, E. (1996). Introduction to a Poétique du Divers.Paris: Gallimard.
Slipper, E. (2009). Philosophy of Relationship. Poetry in range. Paris: Gallimard.
Legendre, P. (1974). Love of the censor. Dogmatic order test. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
Legendre, P. (1985). Inestimable object of transmission. Study on the genealogical principle in the West. Paris: Fayard.
Legendre, P. (2001). From the Society as Text. Lineaments of dogmatic anthropology. Paris: Fayard.
Trouillot, M.-R. (1995). Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press.
Online resources
International College of Philosophy (CIPh). Official site: www.ciph.org
Sens Public magazine. Free access: www.sens-public.org
All-World Institute – Édouard Glissant Research Centre. www.any-world.com
Article published in Espace Sciences et Société, InfosNation
Shakespeare Emile
Student in Master of Philosophy and Transculturality
ENS/ Université Paris 8
shakesemile@gmail.com
