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Sociocultural Anthropology
Regional Focus: Caribbean diaspora in the U.S. South
Topical Interests: Caribbean transnationalism, anthropology of
the U.S. South, extended family kinship and relatedness, anthropology
of Christianity, and urban anthropology
In 2004 I received my B.A. in anthropology and Africana Studies from
Cornell University. During my undergraduate career I cultivated my ongoing
interest in Caribbean migration and family studies through qualitative
research on West Indian migrant child care businesses in Brooklyn, New
York as well as coursework completed at the University of the West Indies
in Mona, Jamaica.
For my dissertation research, I have applied my specialization in Anglo-Caribbean
kinship to analyze the church relationships of a West Indian evangelical
denomination. My ethnographic project examines the intersections of religion
and kinship in the everyday lives of West Indian Brethren church members
in Atlanta, Georgia. In particular I am investigating the relational features
of West Indian "church families" and examining how cultural
and theological understandings of kinship inform the constitution of West
Indian church networks. In crafting a project that seeks to think across
the analytical domains of religion and kinship, I also attend to the fluidity
of sacred and secular relatedness as expressed in the personal migration,
life crisis, and spiritual narratives of West Indian churchgoers. Finally,
my examination of the multi-ethnic regional network of Brethren "sister"
churches allows me to view how church kinship responds to national, ethnic,
racial, and gender differences.
MA Paper (2006): Extending Kinship Links and the Analytical
Lens: An Exploration of Transnational Collateral Kinship Among Jamaican
Migrants in Atlanta, Georgia
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