Through her study of portraiture, Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby (History of Art) addresses the unique and profound indeterminacy of the term “Creole," a label applied to white, black, and mixed-race persons born in French colonies during the 19th century. Based on extensive archival research, Creole (Penn State, 2022) is an original and important examination of colonial identity.

"Creole” implies that the geography of one’s birth determines identity in ways that supersede race, language, nation, and social status. The term has engendered a perpetual search for visual signs of racial difference as well as a pretense to blindness about the intermingling of races in Creole society. With close attention to the differences between Afro-Creole and Euro-Creole cultures and persons, she examines figures such as Théodore Chassériau, Guillaume Guillon-Lethière, Alexandre Dumas père, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, the models Joseph and Laure, Josephine Bonaparte, Jeanne Duval, and Adah Isaacs Menken.

She is joined by Karl Britto (Comparative Literature and French).