Maggie Cummings | University of Toronto (original) (raw)
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Papers by Maggie Cummings
New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme allows Pacific islanders, including many ... more New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme allows Pacific islanders, including many from Vanuatu, to migrate as temporary agricultural labourers. For government stakeholders, the program's success can be measured, in no uncertain terms, by the increased consumption of foreign goods and community development projects funded by returned migrants. Yet it is precisely in these terms, of new belongings and one's sense of belonging, that returnees, especially young men, experience the greatest uncertainty. How should they use the money they earn overseas: to strengthen their kinship networks and communities by sharing their wealth, or to purchase clothes, stereos, cars, or even land, which will belong only to them as individuals? Each strategy has its potential promises and pitfalls, and the outcomes remain uncertain. Will workers who spend on belongings alienate themselves from their kin and island communities? And how might they be forging new kinds of belonging as young urban wage earners? In addition to exploring these questions, this paper suggests that these strategies might inform and inspire relevant policy that is better able to grapple with the very uncertainties the RSE helps to create.
A Companion to Diaspora and Transnationalism, 2013
The Contemporary Pacific, 2013
In this article, I explore the contingent and contested boundaries of looking good for young wom... more In this article, I explore the contingent and contested boundaries of looking good
for young women in Vanuatu and the ways in which they negotiate these boundaries.
I use women’s dress as a lens through which to focus on the relationships
among gender, modernity, race, and morality, and I show the ways in which
all four are condensed and embodied in the moral and aesthetic imperative for
women to look good. In particular, I focus on the island dress, a dress first introduced
by missionaries but taken up after independence as an emblem of national
pride and as the traditional dress for women. Although wearing the island dress
is the commonsense way for women to look good, the young women with whom
I conducted fieldwork in 2001–2002 and again in 2008 and 2011 experienced a
great deal of ambivalence about the dress. They often preferred to wear trousers
and T-shirts, which frequently won them the disapproval of their elders. By focusing
on the polyvalent meanings of the island dress, the realities of young people’s
everyday lives in the capital, and the uneven terrain of the dress-scape of Vanuatu,
I show that young women’s love/hate relationship with island dress reflects their
frustration with their ambiguous place in the contemporary national imaginary.
Auto-Ethnographies: The Ethnography of Academic Practices, 2005
Making Sense of AIDS: Culture, Sexuality and Power in Melanesi, 2008
Anthropology News, 2004
... Photos from left: Jeff Conine chats on-air with DJ Staci Coffey; DJ Stacy Coffey accepts a do... more ... Photos from left: Jeff Conine chats on-air with DJ Staci Coffey; DJ Stacy Coffey accepts a donation over the phone; DJs Darlene Evans, Jay Michaels and Terry Coffey enjoyed a day of helping others; Lotsy Dotsy shares a patient story with listeners. Page 3. ...
Syllabi by Maggie Cummings
Office Hours: Mondays 2-3pm; Wednesday 3-4pm; or by appointment Office Phone: 416-208-4827 Course... more Office Hours: Mondays 2-3pm; Wednesday 3-4pm; or by appointment Office Phone: 416-208-4827 Course Description: In this course, we will investigate a wide range of topics, themes, theories, and issues having to do with the myriad relationships and connections between anthropology, culture, film and media (including television, the internet, mobile phones and social media). In doing so, we will ask: How do various media represent and shape cultural values within a given society? What is their place in the formation of social relations and social identities? What are their roles in global processes of socioeconomic and cultural change?
New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme allows Pacific islanders, including many ... more New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme allows Pacific islanders, including many from Vanuatu, to migrate as temporary agricultural labourers. For government stakeholders, the program's success can be measured, in no uncertain terms, by the increased consumption of foreign goods and community development projects funded by returned migrants. Yet it is precisely in these terms, of new belongings and one's sense of belonging, that returnees, especially young men, experience the greatest uncertainty. How should they use the money they earn overseas: to strengthen their kinship networks and communities by sharing their wealth, or to purchase clothes, stereos, cars, or even land, which will belong only to them as individuals? Each strategy has its potential promises and pitfalls, and the outcomes remain uncertain. Will workers who spend on belongings alienate themselves from their kin and island communities? And how might they be forging new kinds of belonging as young urban wage earners? In addition to exploring these questions, this paper suggests that these strategies might inform and inspire relevant policy that is better able to grapple with the very uncertainties the RSE helps to create.
A Companion to Diaspora and Transnationalism, 2013
The Contemporary Pacific, 2013
In this article, I explore the contingent and contested boundaries of looking good for young wom... more In this article, I explore the contingent and contested boundaries of looking good
for young women in Vanuatu and the ways in which they negotiate these boundaries.
I use women’s dress as a lens through which to focus on the relationships
among gender, modernity, race, and morality, and I show the ways in which
all four are condensed and embodied in the moral and aesthetic imperative for
women to look good. In particular, I focus on the island dress, a dress first introduced
by missionaries but taken up after independence as an emblem of national
pride and as the traditional dress for women. Although wearing the island dress
is the commonsense way for women to look good, the young women with whom
I conducted fieldwork in 2001–2002 and again in 2008 and 2011 experienced a
great deal of ambivalence about the dress. They often preferred to wear trousers
and T-shirts, which frequently won them the disapproval of their elders. By focusing
on the polyvalent meanings of the island dress, the realities of young people’s
everyday lives in the capital, and the uneven terrain of the dress-scape of Vanuatu,
I show that young women’s love/hate relationship with island dress reflects their
frustration with their ambiguous place in the contemporary national imaginary.
Auto-Ethnographies: The Ethnography of Academic Practices, 2005
Making Sense of AIDS: Culture, Sexuality and Power in Melanesi, 2008
Anthropology News, 2004
... Photos from left: Jeff Conine chats on-air with DJ Staci Coffey; DJ Stacy Coffey accepts a do... more ... Photos from left: Jeff Conine chats on-air with DJ Staci Coffey; DJ Stacy Coffey accepts a donation over the phone; DJs Darlene Evans, Jay Michaels and Terry Coffey enjoyed a day of helping others; Lotsy Dotsy shares a patient story with listeners. Page 3. ...
Office Hours: Mondays 2-3pm; Wednesday 3-4pm; or by appointment Office Phone: 416-208-4827 Course... more Office Hours: Mondays 2-3pm; Wednesday 3-4pm; or by appointment Office Phone: 416-208-4827 Course Description: In this course, we will investigate a wide range of topics, themes, theories, and issues having to do with the myriad relationships and connections between anthropology, culture, film and media (including television, the internet, mobile phones and social media). In doing so, we will ask: How do various media represent and shape cultural values within a given society? What is their place in the formation of social relations and social identities? What are their roles in global processes of socioeconomic and cultural change?