My research interests encompass the related areas of tourism studies, historical anthropology, and colonial and postcolonial studies. I am currently doing research on issues of tourism, ethnicity, and citizenship in the Central American/Caribbean country of Belize. This research looks at 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 historical anthropological research in Kenya on issues of identity, representation, and power in colonial society that examines 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.

Educational Background

Current Research

A House for the Kager: Contesting Relatedness in Colonial Kenya . I am currently completing a book that explores the varied ways in which kinship, as a form of relationship and a source of meaning, was used to construct and negotiate identity for and amongst Kager Luo peoples living in Nyanza Province, western Kenya, between 1895 and 1940. 

‘Being Belizean': Touristic Ethnicity and the State in Belize . This project seeks to establish the role of ethnic culture in tourism development in Belize and to determine the extent to which the promotion of ethnic culture, as tourist spectacle, is connected to the formation of citizenship in Belize. For this project I will be focusing on two emerging sites of ethnic tourism in Belize: 1) Toledo District, where the Toledo Maya Cultural Council and the Toledo Ecotourism Association promote the development of ecotourism sites that are linked with an experience of a Maya past and present; and 2) Stann Creek District, where the National Garifuna Council seeks to conserve an Afro-Caribbean heritage through the display and promotion of this heritage at tourism venues. The overall objective of this research is to determine the extent to which local residents participate in tourist spectacles of ethnic culture and how these experiences may help to shape an understanding of ‘being Belizean'. 

Civil Blood: Kinship and Political Agency in Kenya.  This ongoing project considers the discursive and practical role of kinship in the construction of meaningful and politically strategic identities within the public sphere of social life in contemporary Kenya. I am exploring the ways in which the cultural logic of kinship shapes forms of political agency and identity that encompass, but go beyond the local community, informing ideas of citizenship and enabling engagement with the state.

Recent Publications