Kathleen Bubinas

Office Number: N119

Phone Number: (262) 521-5523

E-Mail: kathleen.bubinas@uwc.edu

Title: Associate Professor

Department: Anthropology

Office Hours: Not given

Education:

• Ph.D. Anthropology 2001
  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Department of Anthropology
• Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies 2001
  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Center for Women’s Studies

Research and Teaching Interests:

• Informal economies
• Farmers' markets
• Urban agriculture
• Ethnic communities and labor markets in the United States
• Women in the workplace
• Urban anthropology
• Student service-learning

I am interested in the role of informal economies such as farmers' markets, ethnic economies, and urban agriculture within the context of the broader national economy.  One of the issues I have recently been investigating is whether farmers' markets located near or within cities aid in the economic revitalization of downtowns hit by deindustrialization and the loss of jobs and population.  In tandem with this research is enumerating the direct and indirect socioeconomic effects of farmers' markets on urban communities.  Previous research investigated whether immigrants take jobs away from American workers and whether ethnic economies serve as stepping stones for immigrants into the mainstream U. S. labor market.  In addition, in 2008 I participated in a service-learning project in collaboration with UW-Milwaukee that began to document the cultural and agricultural heritage of returnees from the Ninth Ward in New Orleans.  These oral histories will form the basis for a new project which will compare income and economic cost savings households receive from their gardens in New Orleans and Milwaukee. 

I teach courses in General and Cultural Anthropology, Urban Anthropology, Women in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Food and Culture, Multicultural Learning through Study and Service, and Cultures of the World.

Publications:

• 2005 Gandhi Marg: The Social Construction and Production of an Ethnic Economy in Chicago. City and Society XVII(2):161-179.
• 2005  Introduction to theme issue, “Revisiting ‘The City’:  The Social Production of Urban  Space in Chicago.” City and SocietyXVII(2):157-160.
• 2005  Review of  Newcomers to Old Towns: Suburbanization of the Heartland. Sonya Salamon.  Sociological Imagination 41(1):71-74.
• 2004  Preliminary Report of a Photographic Survey of an Asian Indian Ethnic Economy in Chicago. Critical Mass (6):6-10.  University of Wisconsin Colleges’ Anthropology/Sociology Newsletter.
• 2003  The Commodification of Ethnicity in an Asian Indian Economy in Chicago. City and Society XV(2):195-223.

Fieldwork:

New Orleans: Katrina and its Aftermath: Multicultural Learning through Study and Service

UW-Waukesha Faculty Leader, Winterim 2009

Collaborative research project with UW-Milwaukee and Louisiana State University that examines the recent efforts to redevelop community in the areas heavily affected by Katrina.  Students and faculty are immersed in the Ninth Ward through study, interviews and videotaping returnees and participating in service learning sites.  Students explore the concept of community and race in the U.S. through a study of the cultural history and people of New Orleans. 

Wisconsin - Farmers' Market Research Project

Principal Investigator, 2008 - Present

Multidisciplinary project to assess the socioeconomic impact of farmers' markets on downtown business districts in the process of economic restructuring.  Research consists of participant observation, structured and informal interviewing, surveying, and visual documentation.  This project is also serving as a laboratory for anthropology, history and economic students interested in ethnographic research and oral/archival history.

Final Report of Phase One - Survey Report

Feeding the Downtown: A Study of the Economic Effects of Farmers' Markets on Local Economies in Wisconsin.

Chicago - Gandhi Marg - Devon Avenue

Principal Investigator, 1999 - 2007

Research consisted of participant observation in the ethnic stores, informal interviewing, structured formal interviewing, and developing a visual documentation of the area for historical and research purposes.  Continuing research addresses the role of ethnography in assessing the economic impact of 9/ll on the South Asian economy.

India

Coordinator, March 1996

Planned and coordinated a trip to India sponsored by the American Association of University Women for the purpose of establishing a dialogue between women in the United States and India regarding socioeconomic issues of importance to both groups. The trip lasted for two weeks.  During that time the group traveled from Delhi to Mumbai (Bombay) visiting Hamayun’s Tomb, Qutab Minar, the Taj Mahal, and the towns of Jaipur, Udaipur, Mount Abu, and Ahmedabad.  During this time we visited with the Federation of University Women in Delhi and the women of SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) in Ahmedabad.