User:PiereOrelus.Phd

Dr. Pierre Wilbert Orelus, a naturalized American citizen, was born and grew up in Haiti. The son of a struggling carpenter father and a “madan sara” (woman who transports and sells merchandise) mother. Dr. Orelus attended and received his first formal basic education in an old church built by American missionaries whom he called in his first book neo-colonizers. When Dr. Orelus was 11 years old, he moved from the countryside to the capital, Port-au-Prince, with his older siblings to continue his education. Dr. Orelus completed high school at the age of 22 and attended college when he was almost 23 years old. Though the youngest child in his family, he was the first one to have completed high school and the first one to attend college. While in high school, he took part in numerous student movement protests that led to the overthrow of the principal and assistant principal of the school. This high school principal was notorious for attributing communist epithet to students who were challenging the status quo and striving to effect social change. As a college student in Haiti, Dr. Orelus continued to be politically active. He participated in many student protests against Haitian de facto regimes while continuing to lead a youth organization he co-founded and chaired for two years. In 1993, Dr. Orelus immigrated to the US to rejoin his older brother due partly to the political instability of his native land. In 1997, Dr. Orelus completed his Bachelor’s degree in Human Services Advocacy from University of Massachusetts-Boston. In 2001, he earned a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics with a focus on ESL (English as a Second Language) from the same university. In 2008, he earned a doctorate in Language, Literacy and Culture from University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Currently, Dr. Orelus is an assistant professor in the Curriculum and Instruction department at New Mexico State University (NMSU), where he co-coordinates the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Bilingual Education programs. In addition, Dr. Orelus is the Chair of the Post-colonial and Education Special Interest (SIG) Group at American Educational Research Association. Professor Orelus was the co-chair and co-organizer of the fourth International Conference in Education, Labor, and Emancipation taking place in Salvador, Brazil in 2009. Professor Orelus has received several award and fellowships, including New Mexico State Dean of Education award for Excellence in Research, ALANA Minority Fellowship, ACCELA Fellowship, and New Perspectives Fellowship. He has extensive experiences working with schools and families, teaching students and urban pre-service and in-service teachers from various cultural, linguistic, racial/ethnic, and social class backgrounds. Professor Orelus’ research interests include post-colonial studies; critical race theory; TESOL (teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and bilingual education; gender studies, particularly masculinity and maleness; multiracialism; critical multicultural education; Caribbean studies; and cultural studies. Professor Orelus has spoken nationally and internationally about issues related to neo-colonialism, racism, race, multiracialism, language, culture, identity, and gender. He has been invited both as a guest and keynote speaker by several U.S. colleges and universities, such as Mount-Holyoke college, Bates Colleges, Keen State college, Holyoke and Greenfield Community colleges, University of Massachusetts at Amherst to talk about his work. In addition, he has appeared on TV programs like EL Paso ABC local TV program to comment on the earthquake occurring in Haiti. Dr. Orelus has also been interviewed by students living in the U.S. and Europe about his book, Education under Occupation: The heavy price of living in a neo-colonized and globalized world, which he wrote in 2007 while he was a doctoral student at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dr. Orelus’ second book, The Agony of Masculinity: Race, Gender, and Education within the “New” Age of Racism and Patriarchy, was published in 2009. Two of his recent books, Academic Achievement: Whose Definition? and The Occupier and the Occupied were published this year. In praising Dr. Orelus’ for his book The Agony of Masculinity, the acclaimed African American scholar Cornel West stated, “ Orelus is an intellectual freedom fighter whose deep insights and sharp analyses of institutional racism and black masculinity deserve our attention.” Dr. Orelus’ forthcoming Against the Matrix of Oppressions: Toward a Democratic Society and an Equitable Society, will be published by Rawman and Littefield early spring, 2010. Currently, Dr. Orelus is currently working on two book projects, Asserting Multiracialism (with Eric Hamako) and Oppressed by a Different Name. These books will be published in spring and fall 2011 by Information Age Publishing and PeterLang, respectively. In addition, Dr. Orelus is co-editing a book Teaching Edward Said (with Curry Malott) scheduled to be released in summer 2012. Finally, Dr. Orelus has written several peer reviewed articles and book chapters.