Joseph Sony Jean is a researcher at Institute for History (Leiden University) and affiliated researcher at KITLV. As an archaeologist, his work focuses on the longue-durée landscape transformation of Haiti from the Amerindian occupation to the contemporary society. Sony combines ethnographic research material culture studies, visual and textual documents, interviews, and participant observations in his work. 

Sony holds a Bachelor’s degree in History of Art and Archaeology from the Université d’Etat d’Haiti and has studied both History and Archaeology at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, in Jamaica. He earned a Research Master’s degree from Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail in France and a PhD in Caribbean Archaeology from Leiden University.

He is the co-editor of the book: Local Voices, Global Debates: The Uses of Archaeological Heritage in the Caribbean. Brill. Currently, Sony is leading an NWO-Veni project (2022-2025), investigating archaeological sites and examining contemporary practices and interactions with heritage in postcolonial societies. By innovatively integrating archaeology, ethnography, and heritage studies, Sony’s work centers on Haiti—the world’s first Black Republic—to highlight the importance of engaging historically marginalized communities in creating inclusive narratives of the past and heritage. 

Selected Publications

Jean, Joseph, ‘Being and becoming one of the voices of Haitian archaeology’,Working as indigenous archaeologists, pp. 197-203. Routledge, 2024.  

Jean, Joseph, & Herrera E. Malatesta (eds.), ‘Local voices, global debates: The uses of archaeological heritage in the Caribbean’, The Early Americas: History and Culture 12. Brill, 2024.  

Jean, Joseph, ‘Exploring archaeological sites and the transformative power of local practices of heritage in the Caribbean: A Haitian case’, International Journal of Historical Archaeology 28-2, pp. 500-524, 2024.   

Jean, Joseph & Jerry Michel, ‘Renegotiating and theorizing heritage in the context of “disaster” in the Caribbean: The entanglement of Haitian disaster-related histories’, Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 12 (2-3), pp. 79-107, 2024.  

Jean, Joseph & Herrera E. Malatesta, ‘Colonization, indigenous resilience, and social justice in Caribbean archaeology’, in: K. P. Claire Smith, Alok Kanungo, Sally May, Sandra Lopez Varela, Joe Watkins (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Global Indigenous, 2023.  

Jean, Joseph & Till Sonnemann & Corinne L. Hofman, ‘Complex landscape biographies: palimpsests of Fort-Liberté, Haiti', Landscape Research 46-5, pp. 618-637, 2021.  

Jean, Joseph, La biographie d’un paysage: Etude sur les transformations de longue durée du paysage culturel de la région de Fort-Liberté, Haïti. Sidestone Press, 2019.  

Jean, Joseph, Marc Joseph, Camille Louis, & Jerry Michel, ‘Haitian archaeological heritage: Understanding its loss and paths to future preservation’, Heritage 3-3, pp. 733-752, 2020.  

Jean, Joseph & Corinne L. Hofman ,’Dynamiques interculturelles des traces mémorielles amérindiennes d’Haïti’, in: Lawrence Aje & Nicolas Gachon (eds.), La mémoire de l’esclavage: Traces mémorielles de l’esclavage et des traites dans l’espace atlantique, pp. 131-156. Paris: Edition L’Harmattan, 2018.