Carolyn Martin Shaw Papers
From a childhood spent in a tenement in Norfolk, Va., Carolyn Martin Shaw went on to enjoy a distinguished career as a pioneer in Black Feminist anthropology. Educated in segregated schools, she was an outstanding student, winning scholarship funding to Michigan State University, where she received both her BS (1966) and PhD (1975). Shaw’s dissertation on Kikuyu kinship morality marked several themes that she developed through subsequent research projects in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Based in the Department of Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz throughout her career, she was a productive scholar, publishing dozens of articles and chapters, and two important monographs, Colonial Inscriptions: Race, Class and Sex in Kenya (1995) and Women and Power in Zimbabwe: Promises of Feminism (2015), and she filled a variety of administrative posts, including department chair, Provost of the Kresge residential college, and Chair of the UC system-wide Committee on Privilege and Tenure. She has received numerous awards in her career, including a Fulbright Fellowship to the University of Zimbabwe in 1983-1984, a Danforth Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and a McHenry Award for Service to the Academic Senate at UCSC. Shaw retired from UCSC in 2010.
Documenting her work in Black feminist anthropology, the Carolyn Martin Shaw collection includes published and unpublished writing, correspondence, and a wealth of information on her research in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Along with her fieldnotes, research data, and photographs, the collection also includes records of her faculty service at USCS, and awards received for teaching and university service.
Background on Carolyn Martin Shaw
Carolyn Martin Shaw, born Carolyn Martin in a tenement in Norfolk, Virginia in 1944, spent
most of her childhood growing up in an all-black lower-middle-class community, Crestwood in
Chesapeake, VA. As a child, her mother was a huge influence, instilling in her a sense of
hard work and service to others that would stick with her for the rest of her life. Shaw stood out academically in high school – even acting as a substitute teacher while she was still a student! – leading to her geometry teacher guiding her towards attending Michigan State University. She began as a math major, until a first year class on physical anthropology captured her interest due to the grandness and magnitude of the field. She graduated with a BS with honors in 1966. Eventually, Shaw narrowed her interest to a focus on East Africa, due to feeling a sense of familiarity between early 1970s Kenya and her segregated Virginia hometown. While completing fieldwork in Kenya for her dissertation, her experience living with a family where the women did not behave as they were “supposed” to was a turning point for Shaw, leading her to study women and gender relations for the rest of her academic career.
As a graduate student enrolled at Michigan State University, Shaw finished her dissertation,
“Kinship Morality in the Interaction Pattern of Some Kikuyu Families,” as an Acting Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1975, after three years of working at UCSC and the birth of her daughter, she received her PhD from MSU. Shaw never left UCSC, retiring in 2010. She served many roles, including Professor in the Anthropology Department, the Department Chair from 1993-1996, and as the Provost of Kresge College from 1991-1996.
While at UCSC, Shaw was extremely active in the campus community and was constantly working
to improve the UCSC experience for faculty and students alike through community-building
challenges. She served on several administrative committees, such as the Committee on Privilege and Tenure and the Committee of Planning and Budget, and played a vital role in the revitalizing of the colleges at UCSC. While serving in the Academic Senate, Shaw worked to help gain faculty recognition of non-faculty staff, to reduce the University’s use of police force during student demonstrations, and to develop comprehensive sexual harassment policies. Throughout her entire career she worked to foster a supportive campus environment for students of color at the majority white UCSC.
Shaw received a number of awards for her teaching, her service, and for her research. Included in that list are a Fulbright Fellowship to the University of Zimbabwe in 1983-1984, a Danforth Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1977, and a McHenry Award for Service to the Academic Senate at UCSC in 2004.
Contents of Collection
Carolyn Martin Shaw has dedicated her life to her work as a Black feminist anthropologist and to the community at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Carolyn Martin Shaw Papers document her career as a professor at UCSC while focusing on her research in Africa, specifically in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
The Papers consist of various correspondence, photographs, published and unpublished writings, research materials and notes, and audio and video recordings from her work in Black feminist anthropology.
The collection is organized into two series: Writings and Publications, and Academic Life.
Series 1 is arranged into three subseries: Publications, Published Writing, and Unpublished Writing.
Contents:
This series consists of writings and publications by Shaw and by others.
Subseries 1: Publications – This subseries contains a collection of publications collected by Shaw, the bulk of which come from late 20th-century Zimbabwe. Included are academic articles and journals written by others and pop culture magazines. Of note is the collection of Zimbabwe News magazines, the media organ of the ZANU, the ruling party of Zimbabwe from 1979-1986,during the transition from colony to independent state.
Subseries 2: Published Writing – This subseries contains a wide range of Shaw’s published writings. Both academic and non-academic writings are included. Within the academic sphere, there are articles, book chapters and reviews, reader comments and responses to Shaw’s books, and research related to an academic article.
Subseries 3: Unpublished Writing – This subseries is made up of a variety of unpublished writings by Shaw including academic articles, correspondence, fiction and creative essays, various proposals, and an interview with Shaw by an undergraduate student.
Series 2 is arranged into eight subseries: Education, Female Genital Mutilation, Kenya Research, Personal, Photos, Slides, University of California Santa Cruz, and Zimbabwe Research.
Contents:
This series documents Shaw’s academic career from high school through retirement from the University of Santa Cruz while highlighting her research done in Kenya and in Zimbabwe.
Subseries 1: Education – This subseries consists of materials from Shaw’s education, spanning from high school to graduate school.
Subseries 2: Female Genital Mutilation – This subseries contains materials from Shaw’s research into female genital mutilation, including academic articles written by others, media coverage, and interviews.
Subseries 3: Kenya Research – Materials from Shaw’s work in Kenya for her dissertation and for her monograph, Colonial Inscriptions: Race, Class and Sex in Kenya (1995). Included are correspondence, book proposals, and her field journals from her dissertation research.
Subseries 4: Personal – This subseries consists of materials from Shaw’s personal life including former IDs, documents related to her marriage, and personal correspondence.
Subseries 5: Photos – This subseries documents Shaw’s travels in Africa, and her time at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Subseries 6: Slides – This subseries documents Shaw and her family’s travels throughout Africa.
Subseries 7: University of California, Santa Cruz – This subseries details Shaw’s career at the
University of California, Santa Cruz. It is further divided into the two main facets of
professorship: service and teaching. Shaw’s active presence on campus is evident through the
materials regarding her service to the academic senate, her involvement in black student life on
campus, and her time as Provost of the Kresge residential college. Additionally, this subseries contains a large number of syllabi, handouts, and other materials related to teaching. Of particular note are the papers of Nubra Floyd, a colleague and collaborator of Shaw’s, which were donated alongside Shaw’s. Included are some of Floyd’s work with children in Tanzania and materials from a workshop co-taught with Shaw.
Subseries 8: Zimbabwe Research – This subseries contains a wealth of materials related to Shaw’s
research in Zimbabwe and active role in the Women’s Action Group, a feminist Zimbabwean group.
Included are audio recordings of interviews, an extensive survey done across Harare, photos, a governmental report on women, internal documents from Women’s Action Group, and an extensive collection of newspaper clippings from the Sunday Mail regarding topics related to women and women’s rights.
This folder contains images of indigenous groups from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. It also contains copies from the July 1962 edition of Horizon, the magazine of the Rhodesian Selection Trust Group of Companies.
This folder contains images of Zimbabwean fashion from the late 1950s, early 1960s, and mid-1980s.
This folder is restricted.
This folder begins the eight folder collection of Nubra Floyd’s contribution
to the UMass Amherst Black Feminist Archive. Floyd was a colleague and collaborator of Shaw’s,
focusing on social psychology.
This folder contains copies of photos taken in late 1970s – early 1980s, as well as copies of photos taken in the early 2000s.
This folder is restricted
This folder is restricted
This folder contains Shaw’s analyses of the Home and Country magazine in
Zimbabwe during its colonial period, then known as Rhodesia. Editions analyzed run from the
mid-1930s to the 1960s.
Administrative information
Access
The collection is open for research.
Language:
English
Provenance
Gift of Carolyn Martin Shaw, May 2017.
Separated Material
Books that came with the Carolyn Martin Shaw Papers were removed from the collection and will be cataloged separately. These books include:
- Africa Today: Special Issue: Women, Language, and Law in Africa II 49.2 (2002) Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press
- Barnes, T.; Win, E. (1992). To Live a Better Life: An Oral History of Women in the City of Harare, 1930-1970. Harare, ZI: Baobab Books
- Bayley, M. (1971). Black Africa Cookbook. San Francisco, CA: Determined Productions Inc.
- Beals, A. R.; Tanabe, P. Plath, D. W.; Halpern, B. K.; Halpern, J. M.; Blakely, P. R.; Durkin, M. C. (1972). People in States. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
- Bond-Stewart, K. (1987). Independence is Not Only for One Sex. Harare, ZI: African Publishing Group
- Canadian Journal of African Studies 23.3 (1989) Toronto, ON: Canadian Association of African Studies
- Chiroro, P.; Mashu, A.; Muhwava, W. (2002). The Zimbabwean Male Psyche with Respect to Reproductive Health, HIV, AIDS, and Gender Issues. Harare, ZI: Centre for Applied Psychology
- Dangaremba, T. (2006). The Book of Not. Oxfordshire, UK: Ayebia Clarke Publishing
- Das Argument 30.6 (1988): Hamburg, DE: Rentzelstrasse
- Davenport, D. (1982). Eat Thunder and Drink Rain. Los Angeles, CA: D. Davenport
- Dinesen, I. (1938). Out of Africa and Shadows on Grass. New York, NY: Random House
- Ekeh, E. (1989). How Tables Came to Umu Madu: The Fabulous History of an Unknown Continent. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press
- Ellis, K.; Durkin, M. C. (1972). People in Communities. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
- Gaidzanwa. R. B. (1985). Images of Women in Zimbabwean Literature. Harare, ZI: College Press
- Gaidzanwa, R. B. (2001). Speaking for Ourselves: Masculinities and Feminities Amongst Students at the University of Zimbabwe. Harare, ZI: University of Zimbabwe Affirmative Action Project: Gender Studies Association: Ford Foundation
- Gibson Wilson, E. (1972). A West African Cookbook. Philadelphia, PA: M. Evans and Company
- Hultman, T. (1985). The Africa News Cookbook: African Cooking for Western Kitchens. Durham, NC: Africa News Service
- Judaism 49.194 (2000) Nutley, NJ: Bernhard DeBoer, Inc.
- Muponde, R.; Taruvinga, M. (2002). Sign and Taboo: Perspectives on the Poetic Fiction of Yvonne Vera. Harare, ZI: Weaver Press Ltd.
- Mutswairo, S.; Chiwome, E.; Mberi, N. E.; Masasire, A; Furusa, M. (1996). Introduction to the Shona Culture. Kadoma, ZI: Juta
- Nyumbani, M. (2001). Alice Taabu’s Cookery Book. Nairobi, KY: Kenway Publications
- Onyebadi, U. (1998). How to Be an African Lady. Nairobi, KY: East African Educational Publishers Ltd.
- Romell Mullen, H. (1981). Tree Tall Woman. Galveston, TX: Energy Earth Communications
- Rouslin, C. (1993). El pescador y las lunas: The Fisherman and the Moons: Le pêcheur et les lunes.
- Shapi, F.; Halford, K. (1982). A Lamu Cookbook. Lamu, KY: Lamu Society
- Strong, B.; Clark, C.; Myers, C. B. (1975). Africa: People in Change. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
- Sudarkasa, N. (1973). Where Women Work: A Study of Yoruba Women in the Marketplace and in the Home. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan
- Swirsky, R. (2003). Calliope’s Notes: Eyes Facing Forward. Santa Cruz, CA: University of California Santa Cruz
- Vera, Y. (1998). Butterfly Burning. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
- Vera, Y. (1998). Nehanda. Harare, ZI: Baobab Books
- Vera, Y. (2002). The Stone Virgins. Harare, ZI: Weaver Press
- Vera, Y. (1999). Under the Tongue. Harare, ZI: Baobob Books
- Vera, Y. (1999). Without a Name. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
- Watson, P. (1998). Determined to Act: The First 15 Years of the Women’s Action Group (WAG) 1983-1998. Harare, ZI: Women’s Action Group
Processing Information
Processed by Joanna Nevins, December 2017.
Related material
For related materials in Special Collections and University Archives see the other collections in the Irma Mclaurin Black Feminist Archive.
Copyright and Use (More information
)
Cite as: Carolyn Martin Shaw Papers (MS 974). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.