Holly Ackerman is the Librarian for Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies in the Duke Libraries’ Department of International and Area Studies. She is an active participant in the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM) and the Latin American Studies Association where she chairs the Section on Scholarly Research and Resources.

Holly is the author of The Cuban Balseros: Voyage of Uncertainty which established the foundational demography and history of the 1994 Cuban raft crisis. She has also published on various topics related to the Cuban diaspora and Caribbean migration. Her work has appeared in the journals Cuban Studies; Encuentro de la cultura cubana; and Latino Studies. She is a contributing editor and author in the recently published collection of essays Cuba (Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2011).

In Spring 2009 she curated the exhibit The Sea is History – Moun Kantè, Yoleros, Balseros, Boteros at the John Hope Franklin Center. The exhibit featured dramatic photography, poster art and paintings by and about the Haitian, Dominican and Cuban
migrants and refugees seeking to reach the US by sea. A companion bibliography can be found here.

Associated Projects

• Haiti: History Embedded in Amber