L. Kaifa Roland

My research is in the area of cultural anthropology with specific interests in tourism, national identity, racial and gender constructions, popular cultural practices, and critiques of capitalism.  With a regional focus on the Caribbean and the broader African Diaspora, I have conducted extensive field research in Cuba.  My recently completed book manuscript — entitled Cuban Color in Tourism and La Lucha — describes the shifting intersections of race, class, sexuality, and belonging.  From my research interests, I have developed a course curriculum that considers the global processes that have shaped cultural practice in Cuba and the Caribbean historically and analyzes a variety of popular responses to the pressures of global capitalism today.

Selected Publications:

• Forthcoming. Cuban Color in Tourism and La Lucha. Book manuscript submitted to various presses.

• 2002. “Yolanda T. Moses: 1996-1997” in Celebrating a Century of the American Anthropological Association:  Presidential Portraits, eds., Regna Darnell and Frederic W. Gleach.  American Anthropological Association, Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press.

• 2008. “After Fidel, Much the Same.”  Round-table commentary for Transforming Anthropology 16(1):67-68. PDF

• 2006. “Tourism and the Negrificación of Cuban Identity” Transforming Anthropology, 14(2):151-162. PDF