Katie Koeppl | 2026 I.S. Symposium
Name: Katie Koeppl
Title: “À la fois plurielle et singulière” : Franco-Antillean and Créole Identity Negotiation in the Context of French Assimilation
Majors: French and Francophone Studies; Anthropology
Advisors: Marion Duval, Heather Fitz Gibbon
This interdisciplinary study examines identity construction in Franco-Antillean populations (specifically Martinicans and Guadeloupeans) in the context of assimilation to a White French Republican norm and integration into la métropole. It draws upon the sociological theories of double-consciousness and the “veil” from W. E. B. Du Bois (1903), decolonization from Frantz Fanon (1952), and the idea of “decolonizing” American anthropology from Akhil Gupta (2022), and is complemented by the cultural significance of Éloge de la Créolité by Raphaël Confiant et al. (1989). Methods included listening to online podcasts by Franco-Antillean creators (published between 2023 and 2025) and inductively coding their transcripts for manifest and latent themes related to categories of cultural identity. The rich dialogue of these podcasts reveals that Franco-Antillean self-description is most impacted by five components: 1) the differences between discussions of academic frameworks of “race” and individuals’ lived experiences, 2) how a person’s familial or regional origins are more important than skin color, 3) the linguistic role of Créole in Antillean society, 4) the diversity and multiculturalism of the Antilles, and 5) how being French versus being in France changes your identity. These results show that Franco-Antillean identity is conditional not only on the place which you inhabit and the way you perceive yourself, but also on how others perceive you based on the French standard of universalisme. The goal of this study is to holistically highlight how Franco-Antillean individuals embrace different aspects of their identities. Drawing attention to how the intersection of race, nationality, region, and language influences their self-descriptions contributes to an anthropological understanding of how identity is a product of our unique cultural contexts in a postcolonial world.
Posted in Symposium 2026 on May 1, 2026.
