Research Experience

2008 - Present Kinship and Subjectivity in Colonia Kenya 2003 - Present Tourism, ethnicity, and national identity in Belize 2001-2002 Kinship and civil society in East Africa 1988-2000 Identity and Power - Making Kinship in Colonial Societies in Western Kenya

 

Fellowship/Grants/Awards

2006 Faculty of Arts Research Grant, York University, "Being Belizean: Citizenship and Ethnic Tourism in Belize" 2005 SSHRC Small Grant, York University, "Being Belizean: Citizenship and Ethnic Tourism in Belize" 2004 Faculty of Arts Research Grant, York University, Feasibility Study: "Ethnic Tourism and the State in Belize" 2002 Contract Faculty Research Grant, York University, "Civil Blood: Kinship and Political Agency in Colonial Kenya" 1995 Contract Faculty Research Grant, York University, "“Inventing Colonial Society: Constructing Identity and Power in Western Kenya, 1902-1940" 1988 Social Science Research Council (USA) International Doctoral Fellowship, Africa Program, Dissertation Research in Kenya.  1988 Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies Research Program, Grant for Archival Research in Great Britain and Kenya 1988 National Science Foundation (USA), Grant for Dissertation Research in Kenya 1987 Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Grant for Dissertation Research in Kenya

 

Publications

2010 "Tourism and the Making of Ethnic Citizenship in Belize," In Tourism, Power, and Culture: Anthropological Perspectives. Donald MacLeod and James G. Carrier (Eds). Clevedon UK: Channel View Publications. 2009 “When Blood Matters: Making Kinship in Colonial Kenya,” In Kinship and Beyond: The Genealogical Model Reconsidered.  James Leach and Sandra Bamford (Eds), Oxford: Berghahn Books.  2002 "The Ritual Space of Family," Sewanee Theological Review 45(3): 280-289. 1997 "Contested Kinship and the Dispute of Customary Law in Colonial Kenya," Anthropologica 39(1-2):79-89. In progress The Subject of Kinship: Contesting Relatedness in Colonial Kenya. Book manuscript.

 

Presentations

(Last 10 years)

2010 "Tourism and the Ethnic Subject in Belize," Department Research Seminar, Department of Anthropology, York University. Toronto, Ontario. 2007 "Performing Ethnicity and Enacting Citizenship in Belizean Tourism," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Washington DC. 2007 "The Lineage as Ethnographic Tradition," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Washington DC. 2007 Discussant. "Anthropologies of Paper Trails," Canadian Anthropology Association Meetings. Toronto, Ontario. 2006 "Making 'The Good Life': Tourism, Sovereignty, and Ethnicity in Belize," Canadian Anthropology Society Meetings. Montréal, Quebec. 2005 "Tourism and the Making of Ethnic Citizenship in Belize," Invited Presentation for On Voyage: New Directions in Tourism Theory, Townsend Center for the Humanities, University of California, Berkeley. 2004 "House of Culture: Tourism and Citizenship in Belize," Canadian Anthropology Society Meetings, London, Ontario. 2004 "The Well-Bred Native: Colonial Identities and Post-Colonial Paradigms," Invited Presentation, University of Victoria. Victoria, British Columbia. 2003 "In a State of Ruins," Joint presentation with Kenneth Little, Canadian Anthropology Association Meetings. Halifax, Nova Scotia. 2003 "Locating Kinship in the Colonial Encounter," Invited Presentation, Harriet Tubman Resource Centre, York University. Toronto, Ontario. 2003 "When Blood Matters: Making Kinship in Colonial Kenya," Invited Presentation, Anthropology Department Speakers Series, University of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario. 2001 "Blood and Civility: Colonialism, Kinship, and the Construction of Agency in Kenya," American Anthropology Association Meetings. Washington D.C. 2001 "Living Ritual: An Ethnography of the Life and Scholarship of Urban T. Holmes." Invited Presentation. "Remembering Terry: The Contribution of Urban T. Holmes III," Kanuage Episcopal Center. Hendersonville, North Carolina. 2000 "Blood and Belonging: Kinship and Political Agency in Kenya," Canadian Anthropology Association Meetings, Montréal, Quebec. 2000 "Archival Research in Kenya: Historical and Contemporary Applications," Graduate Colloquium, York University. Toronto, Ontario. 2000 "When Blood Matters: Identity and Agency in Colonial Kenya," Invited Presentation, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University. Hamilton, Ontario.

 

Professional Service

Member (Anthropology Sub-Committee), Aid to Scholarly Publications Committee, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2003-2006, 2006-2009

Member of Selection Panel, Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, 2004-2005, 2005-2006

Book Review Editor (Anthropology), Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 2003-2006

Member, By-Law Review Committee, Canadian Anthropology Association, 2003

Secretary, Canadian Anthropology Society. 1997, 1998-2000, 2000-2002