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Guide to the Greet Kershaw Papers
M1661
M1661
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Table of contents
Title: Greet Kershaw papers
Identifier/Call Number: M1661
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
2.0 Linear feet
(3 manuscript boxes, one map folder)
Date (inclusive): 1953-2003
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.
Processing note: 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.
creator:
Kershaw, Greet (Gretha)
[identification of item], Greet Kershaw papers (M1661). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University
Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
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.
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.
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]
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.
This collection given by Dave Kershaw to Stanford University, Special Collections in 2008.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Anthropology.
East Africa--History
Hmong Americans
Kenya
Mau Mau
Women anthropologists