Member Map

Dr A. Lynn Bolles

Affiliated Institutions

University of Maryland College Park

Lynn Bolles, Ph.D. (1981) Rutgers University, is Professor in the Department of Women's Studies and an affiliate faculty member in Anthropology, African American Studies, Comparative Literature and American Studies at the University of Maryland College Park. She is the author of 5 books that focus on women, work and political economy in the English-speaking Caribbean. Dr. Bolles is the author of over 75 book chapters and articles in referred journals. In 2010, Lynn Bolles was a Visiting Professor at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill (Barbados). Bolles is a past president of the Caribbean Studies Association (1997-98), The Association for Feminist Anthropology (2001-03) and the Society for the Anthropology of North America (SANA) in 2009-11. She was elected to the Cultural Seat of the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association (2013-15). Bolles recieved "The ABA Legacy Award" in 2013 for mentorship, contributions to anthropology and service.

Areas of Research

Women, Work, Political economy

Publications

Bolles, A. Lynn.1983 “Kitchens Hit by Priorities: Employed Working Class Jamaican Women Confront the IMF.” In Women, Men and the International Division of Labor. Edited by J. Nash and M.P. Fernandez-Kelly. p. 138-160. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Bolles, A. Lynn 1988 “Theories of Women in Development in the Caribbean: The Ongoing Debate.” In Gender in the Caribbean. Edited By P. Mohammed and C. Shepard. p. 21-34. Mona, JA: The University of the West Indies,

Bolles, A. Lynn 1987 “Anthropological Research Methods for the Study of Women in the Caribbean.” In Women in the African Diaspora. Edited by S. Harley, R. Terborg-Penn and A. Rushing. p. 65-78. Washington, DC: Howard University Press.

Bolles, A. Lynn 1990 In the Shadow of the Sun, co-authored with P. Antrobus, C.D. Deere, E. Melendez, P. Phillips, M. Riviera and H. Safa. Boulder, CO:Westview Press.

Bolles, A. Lynn 1991 “Case Studies of Women’s Responses to Structural Adjustment Policies: Surviving Manley and Seaga.” Review of Radical Political Economics 23:3&4:20-36.

Bolles, A, Lynn 1996 We Paid Our Dues: Women Trade Union Leaders the Caribbean. Washington, DC: Howard University Press.

Bolles, A. Lynn 1996 Sister Jamaica, A Study of Women, Work and Households in Kingston. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Bolles, A. Lynn 2001 “Like the Phoenix Rising: Family Life in the US.” In Cultural Diversity in the United States. Edited by Ida Susser and Thomas C. Patterson, p. 267-280. Boston: Blackwell Publishers.

Bolles, A. Lynn 2001 “Seeking the Ancestors: Forging a Black Feminist Tradition in Anthropology” In Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Praxis, Poetics, and Politics. Edited by Irma McClaurin. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press p. 24-48

Bolles, a. Lynn 2002 “Women Workers and Global Tourism in Jamaica.” In Global Perspectives on The Black Woman: Race and Gender in the Age of Globalization. Edited by Filomena C. Steady. Shenkman Publishers.p.228-44.

Projects

Jamaica

Sister Jamaica

Ethnography based on research in late 1970s in Jamaica concerning women factory workers and their families during the destablization of the Michael Manley government. It looks at family economic decisions centered around the work of women who are members of Jamaica's three trade unions. The work focuses on how these working class women managed during the IMF intrusion into the economy, impacting social services, food distribution, currency devaluation and the non-aligned movement of the era.

Caribbean, Caicos Islands

We Paid Our Dues

Seven country, multimethod, participatory research with Women leaders in organized labor in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Asks how over the the years trade union organizations constrained and contained the efforts of women as leaders, thwarting upward mobility in those institutions. Interviews, and life stories of women leaders create understanding of gender inequality in these critical organizations, as well as the essential role that women play in those same groups.

Negril, Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica

We Paid Our Dues

Seven country, multimethod, participatory research with Women leaders in organized labor in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Asks how over the the years trade union organizations constrained and contained the efforts of women as leaders, thwarting upward mobility in those institutions. Interviews, and life stories of women leaders create understanding of gender inequality in these critical organizations, as well as the essential role that women play in those same groups.

United States

Politics of Citation for Black women anthropologists

Looks at how the research, scholarship and very presence of Black women anthropologists in the academy are compromised due to racism and sexism in higher education and in the field of anthropology. Using a variety of measures to support the arguement, the work appeared in TRANSFORMING ANTHROPOLOGY21:1:57-71 (April, 2013) in"Telling the Story Straight: Black Feminist Intellectual Thought in Anthropology."

United States

The Face and Voice of Black Women Anthropologists

This intellectual biography of Black women anthropologists looks at the role and history of this group in the field of anthropology. From the first woman to earn a graduate degree up until 2010 PhDs, includes personal interviews, online survey, reading of texts and consulting research on women of color in the academy constructs a history of theory building, ethnography, innovative methodology, across the fields of anthropology.