Area of Interest:

Globalization and Place; Race, Ethnicity and History; Social Movements; Critical Development Studies; Gender; Public Anthropology; the Caribbean; the U.S. Southwest

Education:

Ph.D., University of Florida 1996.

Research & Activities:

Present Research: Broadly, my present interests are the intersection of global processes, configurations of place and place identities (especially in rural contexts); shifting notions of race; and social movements.  For over fifteen years I worked in the Eastern Caribbean exploring how agricultural producers engaged with neoliberal policies and discourses through collective (social movement) and individual narratives of place and nation.  Currently, I continue to explore collective and individual narratives of place through my project on the significance of race, place, and globalization within the rural and historic "all black towns" of Oklahoma.  Here, I am interested in the diverse and shifting ways that race and history are mobilized to define the towns in the 21st century as they are situated within multi-racial/ethnic social and economic networks and discourses as well as a variety of global economic forms.

I am also working on a project about the work of "Chicago School" sociologist, Mozell C. Hill, examining Hill's arguments regarding black "utopian" movements, "white culture," and the contexts shaping U.S. race relations. 

Additionally, I participate in a collaborative project that engages the current Area Studies vs. Global Studies debates by exploring trajectories of Caribbeanist research since the early 20th century, particularly (but not exclusively) in anthropology.  My project (with Deborah Thomas, U. Pennsylvania) attempts to flesh out: the diverse forms of politics that contextualize Caribbeanist research; the ways that methodological and theoretical trends within anthropology are mutually constitutive of Caribbeanist anthropologies more specifically; and the interdisciplinary and transnational dimensions and possibilities of Caribbean studies.  Across four years, we have explored these issues primarily through discussions we organized among over 50 U.S., Caribbean and European-based Caribbeanists as well as anthropologists and academics in other social science and humanities fields.

Courses Taught:
I currently hold a joint appointment in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies (www.unc.edu/depts/afriafam/).  Courses I have taught in both departments include: Anthropology of the Caribbean,  Globalization and Resistance, Contemporary African American Issues, Afro-Caribbeans and the U.S.,  Writing and Publishing in Anthropology, Public Anthropology, Black Feminist Theory

Selected Publications:

2009  “Situating Whites and Whiteness in the Work of Mozell C. Hill.” Transforming Anthropology.  17(1):34-38.

2008  “Critical Explorations of Gender and the Caribbean: Taking it into the Twenty-first Century,” (co-authored with Tanya L. Shields) Identities:  Global Studies in Power and Culture. 15(6): 687-702.

2008  "Caribbean Studies, Anthropology, and U.S. Academic Realignments.” (co-authored with Deborah Thomas)  Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society  10(2): 123-137.

2007  Caribbeanist Anthropologies at the Crossroads:  Revisiting Themes, Revising Concepts.  Special journal issue co-edited wth Deborah Thomas.  Identities: Global Studies in Power and Culture.  vol .14. no. 1/2.

2007  "Situating Sugar Strikes: Contestations of Race and Politics in Decolonizing St. Lucia."  Identities: Global Studies in Power and Culture 14 (1/2):  39-62.

2006  Free Trade and Freedom:  Neoliberalism, Place, and Nation in the Caribbean.  University of Michigan Press.

2005  "Globalisation, the Nation, and Labour Struggles in St. Lucia's Banana Industry."  In: Revisiting Caribbean Labour Studies:  Essays in Honour of O. Nigel Bolland.  Constance Sutton, editor, pp. 98-117.  Ian Randle Publishers.

2003 "Rethinking Global and Area Studies: Insights from the Caribbean." American Anthropologist (105)3:  553-565.  (co-authored with Deborah Thomas)

2003 "Discourses and Counter Discourses on Globalization and the St. Lucian Banana Industry." In: Banana Wars: Power, Production, and History. Steve Striffler and Mark Moberg, editors, pp.306-357.  Duke University Press.

2001 "Negotiating Identity and Black Feminist Politics in Caribbean Research." In: Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Praxis, Poetics, and Politics. Irma McClaurin, editor, pp. 126-149. Rutgers University Press.