Dr. Kathy M'Closkey

Kathy M’Closkey, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor

Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology

Social Justice Studies, University of Windsor

Kathy M’Closkey is an Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology at the University of Windsor, Ontario. She is also a research affiliate with the Southwest Center, University of Arizona, Tucson.  Her research interests focus on globalization and gendered injustice, social justice, intellectual and cultural property rights, appropriation, and the political economy of “collectibles,” with a geographic emphasis on historic and contemporary production by Native American artisans living in the southwest United States.

Education:

BA Anthropology 1981, MA Sociology 1985, from the University of Windsor. PhD in Anthropology 1996  York University, Toronto.

Research:

2007-10 SSHRC. Windsor. $66,372. “Diasporas of and by Design: An Ethnography of Impoverishment of Native American Artisans.”

2004-2007 SSHRC. Windsor . $67,365 “Time Warp: Mapping Spatial and Temporal Differences Between Navajo and Western Aesthetics of Landscape.”

2001-2004 SSHRC. Windsor. $55,650. “Double Jeopardy: Navajo Weavers, Reservation Traders and the Spectre of Free Trade.”  

1998-2001 SSHRC. $37,100.  “The Silent Crisis: Assessing the Consequences of Multiple Appropriations of Navajo Weavers’ Patterns and Production.”

Books:

Swept Under the Rug: A Hidden History of Navajo Weaving. 2002. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 322 pp. Published with subvention from the Southwest Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, as a volume of their Southwest Series. Awarded “Outstanding Academic Title” 2003 Choice (American Academic Library Association), and 2008. 2^nd Edition (paperback).

Why the Navajo Blanket Became a Rug: Excavating the Lost Heritage of Globalization forthcoming. U. of New Mexico Press.  The Social Justice and Globalization Data Archive at the University provided invaluable support for this project.

Chapters Contributed to books:

M’Closkey, Kathy. In press. “Up for Grabs: Assessing the Consequences of Appropriations of Navajo Weavers’ Patterns.” In: No Deal! Indigenous Arts and the Politics of Possessions. Tressa Berman, ed. School of Advanced Research, Santa Fe, NM.

M’Closkey, Kathy. In press. “Unravelling the Narratives of Nostalgia: Navajo Weavers and Globalization.” In: Women and Work: Transnational Histories of Indigenous Women’s Labor in the Modern Era. Joan Sangster and Carol Williams, eds. University of Illinois Press.

“Weaving a Web of Relations: Navajo Weavers and K’e.” Forthcoming. In: Culture, Meaning and Space, Studies in Place and Practice. Pauline McKenzie Aucoin, ed. Berghahn Books, Oxford and London.

M’Closkey, Kathy. 2010. “NOVICA, Navajo Knock-offs and the ‘Net: a Critique of Fair Trade Marketing Practices.” In: Fair Trade and Social Justice: Global Ethnographies. Sarah Lyon and Mark Moberg, eds. NY: NYU Press,  pp. 258-282. 

M’Closkey, Kathy (senior author) and Kevin Manuel. 2006. “Commodifying North American Aboriginal Culture: A Canada-US Comparison.” In Historicizing Canadian Anthropology. Regna Darnell and Julia Harrison, eds. Vancouver: UBC Press, pp. 226-241.

M’Closkey, Kathy. 2004. The Devil’s in the Details: Tracing the Fingerprints of Free Trade and its Effects on Navajo Weavers.” In Native Pathways: Economic Development and American Indian Culture in the Twentieth Century. Brian Hosmer and Colleen O’Neill, eds. University Press of Colorado, pp. 112-130.

Other Research Contributions:

Research Director of Weaving Worlds: Navajo Tales of How the West was Spun. Feature-length PBS documentary (2008) directed by Navajo Bennie Klain of Trickster Films, Austin, TX, and funded by Native American Public Telecommunications, Independent Television Services, the Arizona Humanities Council, the Texas Humanities Council, and logistical support from the Southwest Center, University of Arizona, Tucson. The film has won many awards, including the Deuxieme Prix de Rigoberta Menchu for Social Justice at the Montreal First Peoples Festival (2007), an Award of Commendation from the AAA (2008), and a Special Award of Commendation, Material Culture and Archaeology category, 12^th Royal Anthropological Institute International Festival of Ethnographic Film (2011). London, UK. [www.tricksterfilms.com]. Historic information utilized for funding applications was drawn from my SSHRC-supported research.

Authored Articles in Refereed Journals:

1)“Free Trade + Fair Trade= the Fleecing of Navajo Weavers” 2005. Cultural Survival Quarterly 29 (3): 43-46. 2) “Toward an Understanding of Navajo Aesthetics.” Jan-Feb 2004. SEE: Semiotics, Evolution, Energy. Peter Harries-Jones, editor. www.library.utoronto.ca/see. 3) “Trading Accounts: Sam Teller of Two Grey Hills.” 2003 (Spring). New Mexico Historical Review. 78 (2): 123-46. 4) Yetman, David and K. M’Closkey. 2001. “’The Sun is the Poor Man’s Cobija’: Mayo Weavers in a Neoliberal Economy.” Anthropologica XLIII (1): 71-86.  

Non-refereed scholarly articles and catalogues:

1) “New Insights from the Archives: Historicizing the Political Economy of Navajo Weaving and Woolgrowing.” 2010. Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. Paper 38. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/38.  2) “Carving a Niche: Arctic Co-ops Serve as Mid-wife to Birth of Inuit Art.” 2006. Dan Campbell, ed. UDSA Rural Cooperatives Magazine 73(4) 14-19. 3)  “Weaving is a Way of Life for the Diné.” Curatorial essay for First Nations/Fine Weavers  Burlington Art Centre and Woodlands Cultural Centre, Brantford/Six Nations, ON. 12 pp.  4)  “The Hand not Idle.” 1998. Curatorial essay for Threads of Time. 20pp.  5) “Missed Stitches: the Textile Landscapes of a Small Island.” Arts Atlantic 54 (Winter):34-37.  6) “Threads of Life, Ties that Bind.” 1988.  Curatorial essay in 60pp exhibition catalogue.

Curatorial Activity:

Mingei: Four Centuries of Japanese Folkcraft. Anthropology Museum, U. of Windsor. October 2004-July 2005 (co-curator with collector/conservator David Pepper).

First Nations/Fine Weavers. 1997-2000 Touring exhibition of 33 Navajo rugs to eight venues in the US, and two in Canada. Sponsored by the Burlington Art Centre and toured by the Arizona Commission of the Arts. Most of the rugs were sold and proceeds returned to the weavers.

Threads of Time: 125 Years of Eldon House Needlework. 1998. London Regional Art and Historical Museums. London, ON.

Brea(d)th of Life: Ties that Bind.  1996. MacKenzie Hall, City of Windsor.  Sculptures, prints and fibre works by five Polish-Canadian women artists. Toured to Chatham ON Cultural Centre.

Fields and Flowers: Fabric Landscapes of Prince Edward Island. 1995. Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown, PEI. Toured to Summerside, PEI.

Fibre Tradition/Transition: Historic Textiles from Essex and Kent Counties and Contemporary Canadian Quilts. 1988-90. Art Gallery of Windsor. Toured to six Ontario galleries and museums including the ROM.

More Information

Room: 10 CHT ♦ 519-253-3000 Ext. 4073 ♦ Fax 519-971-3621♦ mcloskey@uwindsor.ca