Description
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.
Background
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.
Extent
2.0 Linear feet
(3 manuscript boxes, one map folder)
Restrictions
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.
Availability
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.