Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Greet Kershaw papers
- Dates:
- 1953-2003
- Creators:
- Kershaw, Greet (Gretha)
- Abstract:
- Greet Kershaw, an anthropologist from the University of California, Long Beach, lived in Kenya from 1955 to 1957 in order to study the reasons behind the Mau Mau movement, an anticolonial movement, and the effects on the local people and the world. Included in this collection are her field notes, her M.A. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation among various correspondences with editors, articles written by her and other notable anthropologists and her contributions to published works. This collection also has maps, charts and photographs which Kershaw used in her research.
- Extent:
- 2.0 Linear feet (3 manuscript boxes, one map folder)
- Language:
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Greet Kershaw papers (M1661). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Three boxes of materials contain photographs, maps, field notes, articles and correspondence of Greet Kershaw, an anthropologist from California State University, Long Beach, before, during and after her fieldwork in Kenya. Also included are notes on her research on Hmong refugees in Southern California, her M.A. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation and her correspondence with various editors.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Greet Kershaw was a professor of Anthropology at California State University, Long Beach, when she went to Kenya in 1955. She remained in Kenya until 1957, traveling between four villages, Thuita, Itara, Mbari ya Igi and Nginduri and studying the Mau Mau. Her husband John Kershaw, a historian, accompanied her and assisted in her research. She earned her Master’s in Anthropology at the University of Chicago in 1960. She went on to complete her Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1972 also at the University of Chicago. Kershaw’s field notes and research culminated in a book entitled Mau Mau From Below which was published in 1997. Kershaw spent years writing her book, revisiting her field sites and exploring the aftermath of a movement. She also was an advocate for applied anthropology because she believed that anthropologists could do valuable work outside of academia. Kershaw also studied and wrote articles about the Hmong diaspora in Long Beach in the 1970s and 1980s.
Kershaw died in 2008. One obiturary wrote, "On Jan. 30, Greet Kershaw, 85, passed away after a brief hospitalization. Born in Amsterdam and raised in the Netherlands, Greet spent her early adult years as a social worker, many of those in East Africa during the 1950s and 1960s, later becoming one of only a handful of ethnologists with detailed, painstakingly collected data about the lives of the Kikuyu people who were at the center of the Mau Mau movement. She earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago and was professor of anthropology at CSULB from 1966 until retiring in the late 1980s." [source: Inside CSULB, Vol 60 No. 16 : Sept 2, 2008, California State University, Long Beach]
- Acquisition information:
- This collection given by Dave Kershaw to Stanford University, Special Collections in 2008.
- Physical description:
- Due to limited resources, minimal processing occurred to this collection. Scholars may find paperclips, staples, and other original bindings along with letters in their original envelopes. A date span was given whenever possible. Since no arrangement occurred inside each individual box, scholars should note that the completeness of the folder heading could be suspect.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2015-08-17T10:19-0700
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The materials are open for research use. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Greet Kershaw papers (M1661). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022