Katherine T.
McCaffrey
Assistant Professor
of Anthropology
Co Chair, Latin
American and Latino Studies Program
Ph.D. City
University of New York 1999
B. A. Tufts
University 1988
Dickson 108
Department of
Anthropology
Montclair State
University
Montclair, New
Jersey 07043
E-Mail
mccaffreyk@mail.montclair.edu
Phone 973-655-7560
Areas of
Research/Interest
Latin America,
Military, Environment, Colonialism
Courses Taught
Cultures of Latin
America
Latin American
Perspectives
Conflict and
Violence
Globalization
MSU Summer Program
in Guadalajara, Mexico
Alternative Spring
Break, New Orleans
Research
My primary research has focused on Vieques, Puerto Rico where I have conducted extensive ethnographic and historical research on the origins and dynamics of grassroots struggle against the U.S. Navy. My ethnography, Military Power and Popular Protest: The U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico (Rutgers 2002) considers the ambivalence about citizenship, sovereignty, and national identity that emerge in grassroots struggle against U.S. naval bombing practices. My book analyzes the way Vieques residents struggled to assert specific material grievances that are a fundamental consequence of Puerto Rico’s political domination by the United States and its armed forces while avoiding the delicate issue of sovereignty. I remain interested in Vieques’ post Navy struggle for environmental remediation and socioeconomic development. I served as guest editor for a special issue of Centro Journal 18 (1) Spring 2006 devoted to military legacies and popular struggle in Vieques, to which I contributed an article based on recent ethnographic research.
Book
Military Power and Popular Protest: The U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2002.

Selected Journal
Articles and Book Chapters
2009
“Environmental Struggle After the Cold War: New Forms of Resistance to
the U.S. Military in Vieques, Puerto Rico.” In Catherine Lutz, editor.
The Bases of Empire: The Struggle against
US Military Posts. London: Pluto Press.
2008
“Usmaíl: Pedro Juan Soto’s
Classic Vieques Novel: an Interview with Charlie Connelly and Myrna Pagán.”
Centro Journal 20 (2): 2-10.
2008
“The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Vieques, Puerto Rico.” In
David Carruthers, editor. Environmental
Justice in Latin America: Problems, Promise and Practice. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
2008
“Because Vieques is Our Home: Defend it! Women Resisting Militarization
in Vieques,
2008
“Social Struggle against the US Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico: Two
Movements in History” (reprint). In Kal and Olga Wagenheim, editors.
The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History.
Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers.
2006
“The
2006
“Social Struggle against the
2006
“Ni Una Bomba Mas: Reframing the Vieques Struggle” (with Sherrie Baver).
In
1998
“Forging Solidarity: Politics, Protest and the Vieques Solidarity
Network.” In The Puerto Rican Movement:
Voices from the Diaspora. Andrés Torres and José Velázquez, editors.
The Leonard
Lopate Show /
January 15, 2004 /
Katherine McCaffrey
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2004/01/15/segments/25273
Vieques
Art and protest on a tiny, embattled island. Produced by Katherine McCaffrey.
http://www.studio360.org/stream/ram.py?file=studio360/studio050501a.ra&start="5:08.4"&end="11:16.8"