Deborah A. Thomas
Professor, Anthropology
Deborah.Thomas@sas.upenn.edu
Phone:
215 746 0435
Education:
Ph.D. New York University 2000 Research Interests:
Nationalism and Alternative Sovereignties; Globalization; Race and Gender; Labor Migration; Transnationalism and Diaspora; Cultural Politics; Performance; Violence and the Transformation of Space; Culture and Political Economy; Popular Culture; Caribbean.
Office Address:
University Museum Room 335
Appointments:
Anthropology Department Faculty; Secondary Appointment, Graduate School of Education; Affiliated Faculty, Africana Studies; Graduate Group Member, Department of English.
Publications:
Film, BAD FRIDAY: RASTAFARI AFTER CORAL GARDENS, 2011
EXCEPTIONAL VIOLENCE: EMBODIED CITIZENSHIP IN TRANSNATIONAL JAMAICA, 2011
GLOBALIZATION AND RACE: TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE CULTURAL PRODUCTION OF BLACKNESS, 2006
MODERN BLACKNESS: NATIONALISM, GLOBALIZATION, AND THE POLITICS OF CULTURE IN JAMAICA, 2004
Selected Articles:
“Violence.” Oxford Bibliographies Online (2012).“The Violence of Diaspora: Governmentality, Class Cultures, and Circulations.” Radical History Review 103:83-104 (2009).
“Caribbean Studies, Anthropology, and U.S. Academic Realignments,” with Karla Slocum. Souls 10(2):123-137 (2008).
“Gendering Diaspora: Transnational Feminisms, Diaspora, and its Hegemonies, with Tina M. Campt, Introduction to Special Issue of Feminist Review, “Gendering Diaspora,” 90:1-8 (2008).
“Walmart, ‘Katrina,’ and Other Ideological Tricks: Jamaican Hotel Workers in Michigan.” Special Issue of Feminist Review (Co-Edited with Tina M. Campt), “Gendering Diaspora,” 90:68-86 (2008).
“Locality in Today’s Global Caribbean: Shifting Economies of Nation, Race, and Development,” with Karla Slocum, Introduction to Special Issue of Identities, “Caribbeanist Anthropologies at the Crossroads: Revisiting Themes, Revising Concepts,” 14(1-2):1-18 (2007).
“Blackness Across Borders: Jamaican Diasporas and New Politics of Citizenship.” Identities 14(1-2):111-133 (2007).
“Public Bodies: Virginity Testing, Redemption Songs, and Racial Respect in Jamaica,” Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 11(1):1-31 (2006).
“Rethinking Global and Area Studies: Insights from Caribbeanist Anthropology.” American Anthropologist 105(3):553-565, with Karla Slocum (2003).
“Democratizing Dance: Institutional Transformation and Hegemonic Re-Ordering in Postcolonial Jamaica.” Cultural Anthropology 17(4):512-550 (2002).
