J. Teresa Holmes
Associate Professor
Office: Vari Hall, 2030
Phone: (416) 736-2100 Ext: 77782
Email: jth@yorku.ca
My research interests encompass the related areas of tourism studies, historical anthropology, and colonial and postcolonial studies. My current research in Belize is on the construction of touristic ethnicity and considers how sites of ethnic tourism provide a venue for the regulation of civic conduct through which residents come to understand themselves as citizens of Belize.
The central aim of this ongoing project is to examine how tourism serves as a foundation for the development of national identity and notions of citizenship. I have also conducted research in Kenya on issues of identity, representation, and power in colonial society. I am now completing a book based on this research entitled A House for the Kager: Contesting Relatedness in Colonial Kenya, which shows how forms of kinship, as constructed by British colonizers, were contested and re-negotiated by local populations as part of their response to colonial domination. My continued work in this area investigates the significance of local and state discourses of kinship in contemporary Kenyan society, exploring the possibility that public kinship continues to afford a meaningful source of identity for the framing of political action.
Degrees
PhD, University of VirginiaMA, University of Virginia
Community Contributions
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
Research Interests
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.
My research interests encompass the related areas of tourism studies, historical anthropology, and colonial and postcolonial studies. My current research in Belize is on the construction of touristic ethnicity and considers how sites of ethnic tourism provide a venue for the regulation of civic conduct through which residents come to understand themselves as citizens of Belize.
The central aim of this ongoing project is to examine how tourism serves as a foundation for the development of national identity and notions of citizenship. I have also conducted research in Kenya on issues of identity, representation, and power in colonial society. I am now completing a book based on this research entitled A House for the Kager: Contesting Relatedness in Colonial Kenya, which shows how forms of kinship, as constructed by British colonizers, were contested and re-negotiated by local populations as part of their response to colonial domination. My continued work in this area investigates the significance of local and state discourses of kinship in contemporary Kenyan society, exploring the possibility that public kinship continues to afford a meaningful source of identity for the framing of political action.
Degrees
PhD, University of VirginiaMA, University of Virginia
Community Contributions
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
Research Interests
All 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.
