1.  A study of Martinique’s thriving informal economy, which I document as a strongly male, thoroughly cross-class phenomenon. The quest for economic autonomy that often inspires this activity is explained in part by the island’s social history and its ongoing tensions between local cultural identity and French nationalism. This work is elaborated in my 2004 book, Creole Economics as well as other publications. 

2.  A study of gender and entrepreneurship among Afro-Creole people who represent the demographic majority in Martinique, but who remain an economic minority. By interviewing 115 entrepreneurs across classes and in varying parts of the island, I learned that black men and women entrepreneurs tend to approach business ownership and employee management differently. For many reasons, women’s strategies are helping unknot tightly bound hostilities of workers toward bosses, problems that have plagued workplace environments since abolition. Their work is helping create a paradigm shift in the local culture of business. I took my research findings from this study and recruited a filmmaker to help me capture this knowledge as a documentary film. We produced the film in French and English, respectively titled  Au Tournant de l’Histoire (original French version) and Lifting the Weight of History (English subtitled version). The French version was broadcast internationally on French TV and TV 5 in summer 2008 and later released in English with subtitles. Filmmaker Ginny Martin is the Emmy-winning filmmaker; I researched, wrote and produced the film, funded in part by the National Science Foundation.