Kim Martin Wearing a white hand-embroidered peasant blouse from Oaxaca, Mexico, professor of anthropology Kim Martin looks behind her and points at a multicultural collection of dolls atop her filing cabinet. Together they express her love of people, textiles and travel – and seem to say “we are the world.” After having traveled through Europe, Asia, and India, Martin says her dolls serve as memories of the places she has been, the people she has met and the things she has seen. “They’re kind of like bringing a person home with me to remind me of my experiences,” she says. “Also I like the symbolism of having them all stand together, regardless of what they’re wearing, what the color of their skin is or if they’re tall or short.” Three dolls adorned in kimonos were souvenirs from Vietnam, while others come from India and Europe. Some were gifts, such as the African dolls, but the majority of her office assortment of crafts come from places she has been. She was married for 20 years to a non-traveling partner, which she says was “like the desert” because it limited her own traveling. Sharon Davis, professor of sociology, has since become her traveling partner; together they have roamed Europe, visited India and are soon headed for China and Tibet. “Travel a big part of my life, it just fills a hunger in me to understand other people, how they live and what their lives are like,” she says. But she enjoys making return trips to the places she has already visited the most. “I love going back to places; there are people who love to travel and sort of notch their belts, saying ‘Oh I’ve been to 362 places,’” she says. “I like to go back in addition to going in the first place because during the first visit you always sort of superficially get a sense of a place and each time you go back it becomes more real; you make friends and establish relationships and I love that part of travel.” She has always been fascinated by people, hence she chose to pursue anthropology. A native Californian growing up in the ’50s, she says young women were not encouraged to go to college or to hold big aspirations. “Girls weren’t encouraged to be much of anything,” she says. “I either wanted to be a stewardess so I could travel, or a librarian because I loved to read.” She majored in psychology as an undergraduate at Stanford University but took a few anthropology classes by chance and was immediately hooked. I went to college thinking that psychology was what I was interested in,” she says. “I found myself asking questions like . . . how are men and women really different? and, how much of what’s different about them is cultural and how much is genetically programmed?” she says. “You can’t really address those questions without looking at cultures that are very different than your own. Psychology was not doing that, and I was frustrated.” ”She found that anthropology addressed all of her interests, answered all her questions and left her eager for more. Though she has been a faculty member at the University of La Verne since she was pregnant with her son, almost 28 years ago, she still has not quenched her thirst for knowledge about people of other cultures. Her most recent research was conducted over the last eight years throughout Europe, on the topic of ethnic identity. “I focus not on minority individuals but on mainstream majority individuals because nobody’s studied them and they’re the ones with the power,” she says. “It seems to me that their ideas about ethnic identity will have more influence on cultural systems because they’re in positions of power.” Martin’s travels have focused on people and cultures, but also on textiles and crafts. Her love of textiles is broad, spanning everything from basic patterned fabrics, needlepoint and embroidery to basketry and weaving. While on planes she might be found designing a patchwork quilt top with Electric Quilt, a program on her computer, or perhaps sewing together quilt squares. Her favorite textiles are called Susani from Uzbekistan, but she has drawers full of fabrics from all over the world that she integrates into quilt designs. Taking out her laptop, she says she is adapting a quilt design she found in a book, using provincial fabric from the south of France. Once completed, it will picture people of the world wearing different hats to represent different cultures and belief systems. “Sewing the pieces together is OK but it’s the colors and design that I love the most,” she says. Martin believes that travel is an essential part of education. Before the current political movement against the state government in Oaxaca, Mexico erupted last summer, she would take classes there during spring breaks to provide students with the chance to experience the world through different eyes, what she says is the most important aspect of travel. “The majority of people have not really thought about what it’s like to be someone in the rest of the world and that’s what I do; I try to make other people’s lifestyles real and relevant,” she says. She has become acquainted with each of the various craft specialties in Oaxaca, an interest spurred by her first visit to the city 35 years ago. “It’s a fabulous place to go if you love art, textiles and crafts because every village has a specialty, such as embroidered clothing and different types of pottery,” she says. “I have gotten to know many families who support themselves as artisans. They are amazing! Many make a living out of virtually nothing, turning gathered wood or wool fleece into beautiful and practical items for sale.”
 Now she is deeply involved in studying the progress of the political movement in Oaxaca and recording personal narratives of the events before and after June 14, 2006, the day that marked the teacher-takeover of the town square after government-initiated violence and the deaths of several citizens, including a small boy. She says teachers in the city strike annually over salaries and classroom conditions, both of which are severely lacking. On June 14, 2006 the governor of Oaxaca responded to their peaceful demonstration by sending in riot police. People from all over the state mobilized around the teachers, and stopped state government and police activity for more than four months, before federal troops were sent in to return the governor to power. “It’s an amazing movement and that’s what I’m interested in; hearing people’s narratives about experiences they had leading up to this crisis and and since the movement formed,” she says. “The movement is not over, so I’m really interested in following its progress; trying to give people down there a voice.” RETURN TO FACULTY LISTHome.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0
Kim Martin