USC.edu
Department of American Studies and Ethnicity

Aurelien Davennes

Ph.D. Student
Aurelien Davennes
Pronouns He / Him / His Email davennes@usc.edu

Biography

Born and raised on the French Riviera, Aurélien Davennes [Pron. O-re-lee-an Davennes] is a Cultural Anthropologist and Ph.D. Candidate in American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. 

Entitled “Vodou in Magic City,” Davennes’ dissertation examines how the Haitian community of South Florida uses Vodou to contest, question, and navigate racial formation, postcolonial legacy, and Black diasporic identity in the United States. 

Davennes notably argues that spiritual healing rituels, communal celebrations, and apotropaic magic are used by the Haitian diaspora to create an original narrative where values of resistance and social justice are mobilized to question the afterlives of U.S. racial politics and imperialism. 

Davennes is also a graduate of Sciences Po-Paris, and the EHESS-Paris. He received the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for 2024-2025. 

Education

  • M.A. Anthropology, EHESS Paris, 2013
  • M.A. Public Policy, Management and Planning, Sciences Po. Paris, 2012
  • B.A. Philosophy, Politics, and Law, Sciences Po. Paris, 2010

  • Research, Teaching, Practice, and Clinical Appointments

    • Research Assistant, University of Southern California, 05/30/2020-08/01/2020
    • Research Assistant, University of Southern California, 05/30/2021-08/01/2021

  • Research Keywords

    Cultural Anthropology, Postcolonial America, Caribbean Ethnography, Magic & Sorcery, African Diaspora, Haitian Vodou, American Studies, Gender & Sexuality

  • Conference Presentations

    • “Opacity, Respectability, Patriarchy: The Pillars of Feminist and Queer Emancipation Among a Haitian Vodou Community in Florida” – 35th Haitian Studies Association (HSA) Annual Conference – CUNY City Tech & Brooklyn College (NY) , 10/2024
    • “A Magical Affair: Queer Desire Among a Haitian Vodou Community in Florida” – American Studies Association (ASA) Annual Meeting – Montréal (Canada) , 11/2023
    • “Magical Migration: ‘Doing’ Diaspora Among the Haitian Community of Miami” – 35th Haitian Studies Association Annual Conference – Morehouse College (GA) , 10/2023
    • “Diasporic Vodou: Blackness, Migration, and Belonging in Miami” – The Anthropological American Association (AAA) Annual Meeting – Seattle (WA) , 11/2022
    • “The Opacity of Desire: Affects, Queerness and Postcolonialism in Guadeloupe” – The Island Feminisms Project, Webinar Series “Island Diaspora” – University of Hawai’i at Manoa , 4/2022
    • “A Transatlantic Poetics of Same-Sex Desire” 2019 American Studies Association Annual Meeting – University of Hawai’i at Manoa , 11/2019
    • “The Poetics of Same-Sex Desire in the Francophone Caribbean” 44th Annual Caribbean Studies Association Conference – Santa Marta, Colombia , 6/2019
    • “An Interlope Desire: LGBTQ Migration between the Antilles and France” California American Studies Association Annual Meeting – San Diego State University , 4/2019
    • “Between the Antilles and France: Desire, Liminality, Sexuality” 11th Annual Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies. Graduate Student Conference – University of New Mexico , 3/2019
    • “Infernal Paradise: Queer Intimacy between the Antilles and France” Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture (CSLC) Annual Symposium – University of Southern California , 2/2019
    • “Territories of Same-Sex Desire” 25th International Conference of Europeanists – Chicago, United States , 3/2018
    • “I movimenti LGBTS in Francia e la questione dell’intersezionalità” Giornata di studi – University of Verona , 9/2015

    Other Presentations

    • Trump Supporters Do Act Rationally, Media Interview on the 2020 U.S Presidential Elections, , 2020-2021
    • (spring 1032) AMST 135. Peoples and Cultures of the Americas
    • (spring 1034) AMST 200. Introduction to American Studies & Ethnicity
    • (spring 1031) AMST 101. Race and Class in Los Angeles
    • (summer 1037) AMST 250. The African Diaspora (taught this class 3 times)
    • (spring 1038) AMST 252. Black Social Movements in the U.S.
    • (fall 1030) AMST 230. Introduction to African American Studies

  • Book Chapters

    • Davennes, A. (2015). Everywhere and Nowhere: Intersectionality and the LGBTQ Movement in France. Politiche dell’orgoglio [The Politics of Pride]pp. 212.Pisa: Edizioni ETS.

    Journal Article

    • Davennes, A. (2022). The Opacity of Desire. Queerness, Postcolonialism, and Diasporic Belonging in Guadeloupe. Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures. Vol. 16 (1), pp. 161-180.
    • Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2024-2025
    • “Best Paper and Presentation” CLCS Graduate Student Conference – University of New Mexico, Spring 2019

  • Office Hours

      Wednesday and Friday : 1pm – 2pm, at the department of American Studies & Ethnicity (KAP, 4th floor)

  • Media, Alumni, and Community Relations

    • Graduate Student Representative, 2018-2019