Anita Waters Affiliation: Faculty Title: Professor Email: waters@denison.edu Phone: -- View Anita's personal page.

Professor Anita Waters has been at Denison since 1992, has a B.A. from Mary Washington College (Sociology and German Literature) and a M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D.(Sociology) from Columbia University in New York. Her interests are in race and ethnicity, popular music, political activism, and Caribbean society.

"My research interests concern the role that ideas and beliefs, especially those that coincide with ethnic group membership, play in shaping social and political action. In my dissertation research, I explored the question of why politicians in Jamaica chose to use Rastafarian symbols and reggae music in electoral campaigns (Race, Class and Political Symbols, Transaction Press, 1985). I have since published research articles about conspiracy theories in African-American political culture (in The Journal of Black Studies) and the uses that Jamaican politicians make of historical narratives (in Caribbean Quarterly). My most recent projects are an examination of the way post-colonial Jamaica has revised its historical narratives and a study of heritage tourism development and unofficial community history in Port Royal, Jamaica. I have recently turned my attention to the Somali immigrant community's experiences in Columbus, Ohio."