Elizabeth Krause

Sociocultural anthropology: population politics, especially reproduction and migration; medical anthropology; political economy and economic anthropology; historical anthropology and social memory; globalization and global families; fast fashion; food and culture; transregional connections and place-based practices; ethnography & writing; digital storytelling; Italy and United States.

I conduct immersive, collaborative, and participatory research to de-essentialize capitalism and illuminate local-global dynamics in terms of how ordinary people live with contradictions of power in an absurdly unequal yet extraordinary world. I ground my work in relation to population politics, production, and reproduction, such as the biopolitics of lowest-low fertility among Italians, migration of overseas Chinese in Italy, and parenting young Latinas in Massachusetts. I work on global households, transregional connections, place-based economies (Made In Italy), fashion and, most recently, figs. As an ethnographer, I am passionate about how to represent social worlds. I push the boundaries of genre in my writing, teaching, and mentoring. I have published numerous peer-review and popular articles as well as three books, including A Crisis of Births: Population Politics and Family-Making in Italy (2005, Wadsworth), Unraveled: A Weaver’s Tale of Life Gone Modern (2009, University of California Press) and Tight Knit: Global Families and the Social Life of Fast Fashion (2018, University of Chicago Press). My new project, “The Pedagogy of Figs: Uncommon Lessons for a Sweet Life,” exposes how multispecies worlds, relations, and memories underwrite value. Protagonists inspire blending historical anthropology, narrative ethnography, and memoir to trace the cultural and historical significance of figs ultimately to confront economic crises and nurture well-being.

BOOKS

2018       Tight Knit: Global Families and the Social Life of Fast Fashion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Finalist, 2019 William A. Douglass Prize in Europeanist Anthropology.

2009     Unraveled: A Weaver’s Tale of Life Gone Modern. Berkeley: University of California Press.

2005     A Crisis of Births: Population Politics and Family-Making in Italy. Case Studies on Contemporary Social Issues. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

2023           Krause, Elizabeth L. Authentic Possibilities: Uncommon Lessons from Slow Figs and Fast Fashion. Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies 23(1): 13–27. In special section on Theorizing Authenticity. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2023.23.1.13

2023           Crossland-Marr, Lauren, & Elizabeth L. Krause. Theorizing Authenticity: Introduction to the Special Section. Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies 23(1): 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2023.23.1.5

2022           Krause, Elizabeth L., & Ying Li. Out of place: everyday forms of marginalization, racism, and resistance among Chinese migrants in Italy, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48:9, 2037-2055, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2020.1801399.

2020           Krause, Elizabeth L. Encounter Ethnography and Making the ‘Made in Italy’ Brand: Chinese Migrant Experiences. Special Issue, The Chinese Worker Goes Abroad, Made in China Journal 5(3): 39–45. http://doi.org/10.22459/MIC.05.03.2020

2020           Krause, Elizabeth L., and Massimo Bressan. Viral Encounters: Xenophobia, Solidarity, and Place-based Lessons from Chinese Migrants in Italy. Special Issue, Anthropological Engagement with COVID-19, Deven Gray, David Himmelgreen, and Nancy Romero-Daza, editors, Human Organization 79(4): 259–270. https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525-79.4.259

2019          Krause, Elizabeth L., and Aline Gubrium. “Scribble Scrabble”: Migration, Young Parenting Latinas, and Digital Storytelling as Narrative Shock. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 33(3): 420–438. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12519

2018           Krause, Elizabeth L., and Massimo Bressan. Circulating Children, Underwriting Capitalism: Chinese Global Households and Italian Fast-Fashion. Current Anthropology 59(5): 572–595. https://doi.org/10.1086/699826

2018         Gubrium, Aline C., Elizabeth L. Krause, and Katie Lucey. “Doing Your Life”: Narrative Intervention with Young Mothers as Storytellers. Human Organization 77(3): 214-227. https://doi.org/10.17730/0018-7259.77.3.214

2017           Krause, Elizabeth L., and Massimo Bressan. Via Gramsci: Hegemony and Wars of Position in the Streets of Prato. International Gramsci Journal 2(3):31–66. Special issue on Gramsci and Anthropology: A “Round Trip.”

2017           Bressan, Massimo, and Elizabeth L. Krause. La cultura del controllo: Letture subaltern di un conflito urbano (Inspection Culture: A Subaltern Reading of an Urban Conflict). Antropologia, December 2017: 131–151.

2016          Gubrium, Aline C., Alice Fiddian-Green, Kasey Jernigan, and Elizabeth L. Krause. Bodies As Evidence: Mapping New Terrain for Teen Pregnancy and Parenting. Global Public Health 11(5–6). 10.1080/17441692.2016.1143522

2015           Krause, Elizabeth L. “Fistful of Tears”: Encounters with Transnational Affect, Chinese Immigrants and Italian Fast Fashion. Cambio 5(10): 27–40.  Special Issue on Work and Difference, edited by Massimo Bressan and Sebastiano Ceschi.

2015           C. Marjorie Aelion, Aline Gubrium, Felicity Aulino, Elizabeth L. Krause, Thomas Leatherman. Bridging Graduate Education in Public Health and the Liberal Arts. American Journal of Public Health 105:S78-S82. 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302467

2014           Aline Gubrium, Elizabeth L. Krause, and Kasey Jernigan. Strategic Authenticity and Voice: New Ways of Seeing and Being Seen as Young Mothers through Digital Storytelling. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 11:337–347. 10.1007/s13178-014-0161-x

2014          Bressan, Massimo, and Elizabeth L. Krause. “Ho un luogo dove lavoro e un luogo dove abito.” Diversità e separazione in un distretto industriale in transizione (“I have a place where I work and a place where I live”: Diversity and Separation in an Industrial District in Transition), Mondi Migranti 8(1): 59–81. https://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=51121

2013           Krause, Elizabeth L. and Anurag Sharma. “Calling the Question”: The Politics of Time in a Time of Polarized Politics. Cambio 3(6): 13–26. http://www.cambio.unifi.it/upload/sub/Numero6/05_Krause_Sharma.pdf

2012           Krause, Elizabeth L. ‘They Just Happened’: The Curious Case of the Unplanned Baby, Italian Low Fertility, and the ‘End’ of Rationality. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 26(3):361–382. (Winner of the Polgar Prize for best article, November 2013.)

2012           Krause, Elizabeth L., and Silvia De Zordo. Ethnography and Biopolitics: Tracing ‘Rationalities’ of Reproduction across the North-South Divide, Introduction to Special Issue of Anthropology and Medicine 19(2):137-151. Silvia De Zordo and Milena Marchesi, eds.

2012           Krause, Elizabeth L., and Anurag Sharma. Sustainability “Wars” in a New England Town Futures (44):631-641.

2011           Terrio, Susan, Aryah Somers, Olivia Faries, Cecilia Menjívar, Elizabeth L. Krause, and Stuart Lustig. Voice, Agency and Vulnerability: The Immigration of Children through Systems of Protection and Enforcement. International Migration 49(5):1-23.

2011           Krause, Elizabeth L. The Challenge of Giving Voice. International Migration 49(5):19-21.

2007           Krause, Elizabeth L. Memory and Meaning: Genealogy of a Fertile Protest. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 12(4):406-416.

2007           Krause, Elizabeth L. and Milena Marchesi. Fertility Politics as ‘Social Viagra’: Reproducing Boundaries, Social Cohesion and Modernity in Italy. American Anthropologist 109(2):350-362.

2006           Krause, Elizabeth L. ‘You Have to Start with Something’: Towards an Ethnographic Research Agenda for Modern Italy. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 11(3):393-403.

2006           Krause, Elizabeth L. Dangerous Demographies and the Scientific Manufacture of Fear. The Corner House, Briefing paper No. 36, http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/.

2005           Krause, Elizabeth L. Encounters with ‘the Peasant’: Memory Work, Masculinity, and Low Fertility in Italy. American Ethnologist 32(4):593-617.

2001           Krause, Elizabeth L. ‘Empty Cradles’ and the Quiet Revolution: Demographic Discourse and Cultural Struggles of Gender, Race, and Class in Italy. Cultural Anthropology 16(4):576-611.

1998           Krause, Elizabeth L. ‘The Bead of Raw Sweat in a Field of Dainty Perspirers’: Nationalism, Whiteness, and the Olympic Class Ordeal of Tonya Harding. Transforming Anthropology (7)1:33-52.

1994           Krause, Elizabeth L. Forward vs. Reverse Gear: Politics of Proliferation and Resistance in the Italian Fascist State. Journal of Historical Sociology 7(3):261-288.

1992           Krause, Elizabeth L. The Looking Glass of Historic Preservation: A Reflection of Modernization and Changing Values. Human Organization 51(2): 97–201. https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.51.2.g224g39650q12475

BOOK CHAPTERS

2024           Krause, Elizabeth L. “An Unjustified Revolt”: Political Discourse and Chinese Migrant Resistance to Inspection Culture. In New Anthropologies of Italy: Politics, History and Culture, edited by Paolo Heywood. Pp. 80–101. New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books.

2020           Krause, Elizabeth L. “ ‘They Are More Careful’: Transnational Care Among Chinese Migrant Parents in Italy.” In The Anthropological Demography of Health, edited by Véronique Petit, Kaveri Qureshi, Yves Charbit, and Philip Kreager. Pp. 493–515. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2020           Krause, Elizabeth L. “‘Cut and Sew’: Migration, Crisis, and Belonging in an Italian Fast-Fashion Zone.” In Digesting Difference: Migrant Incorporation and Mutual Belonging in Europe, edited by Kelly McKowen and John Borneman. Pp. 149-166. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave/Macmillan.

2018           Krause, Elizabeth L. “Reproduction in Retrospective, Or What’s All the Fuss over Low Fertility?” In International Handbook on Gender and Demographic Processes, edited by Nancy E. Riley and Jan Brunson, 73–82. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

2015          Krause, Elizabeth L., and Silvia De Zordo. Ethnography and Biopolitics: Tracing “Rationalities” of Reproduction across the North-South Divide. Introduction to Reproduction and Biopolitics: Ethnographies of Governance, “Irrationality” and Resistance, Silvia De Zordo and Milena Marchesi, eds. Pp. 1–16. London: Routledge. [Reprint.]

2013           Krause, Elizabeth L. ‘Empty Cradles’ and the Quiet Revolution: Demographic Discourse and Cultural Struggles of Gender, Race, and Class in Italy. In Contemporary Cultures, Global Connections: Anthropology for the 21st Century, Victoria Bernal, ed. Pp. 393–424. San Diego: CA: Cognella Inc. [Reprint.]

2011           Krause, Elizabeth L. Carnival, a ‘Sold’ Woman, and Wet Economies: Challenges of making peasants the subjects of history. In SM Annali di San Michele 24/2011, Carnival King of Europe/Carnevale re d’Europa: Potere, Ritualità e i Popoli Senza Storia. Giornate di Studio in Onore di Eric R. Wolf (1923-1999), nel Decennale della Scomparsa, Giovanni Kezich and Antonella Mott, eds. Pp. 463-470. San Michele all’Adige: Museo degli Usi e Costumi della Gente Trentina.

2005           Krause, Elizabeth L. ‘Toys and Perfumes’: Imploding Italy’s Population Paradox and Motherly Myths. In Barren States: The Population ‘Implosion’ in Europe. Carrie B. Douglass, ed. Pp. 159-182. London: Berg. Winner: Most Notable Recent Edited Collection, Council on the Anthropology of Reproduction (2006).

2003           Krause, Elizabeth L. Italy. In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Women’s Issues Worldwide: Europe. Pp. 341-372. Lynn Walter, ed. Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing Group.

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

2024     Chancellor’s Community, Dialogue, and Democracy Working Group, “Democracy and Reproductive Justice Event,” guest speaker with Aline Gubrium, UMASS Campus Center, May 1.

2023     Eco Festival, “Il Fico di Carmignano visto dall’America,” (The Fig of Carmignano as seen from America), Parco Museo, Seano, Italy. June 17–18.

2023     Center for Italian Culture, “What’s Authentic: Uncommon Lessons from Made in Italy.” Keynote speaker, Fitchburg State University, March 30.

2023     Heritage Radio Network, “Lauren Crossland-Marr and Elizabeth Krause on Fashioning Authenticity: Culinary Craft and Creative Work in Italy,” Gastronomica, Bob Valgenti, host, podcast audio, episode 25, March 12. Listen here

2020     Vestoj: The Platform for Critical Thinking on Fashion. Betsy Krause and Massimo Bressan. “A Disease Origin Story.” April 21. Read here

2019     Anthropology News, Elizabeth L. Krause.  “The Moon as Metaphor in Migration Research.” Sections Edition: Society for the Anthropology of Europe. July 12. Read here

2019     Fieldsights, Elizabeth L. Krause. “One world ends and another begins”: Making sense of migration. Hot Spots, Special Theme on Europe in the Balance, Cultural Anthropology, October 22. Read here.

2018     Bloomberg, “Globalization, Fast Fashion, and Chinese Migrants,” Daybreak Asia, David Ingles and Bryan Curtis, hosts, podcast audio, August 27. Listen here

2018     Europe Now, “Fast Fashion, Transnational Ties, and Encounter Ethnography in Italy: An Interview with Elizabeth L. Krause,” Special Feature on Europe-China Relations, Kelly McKowen, interviewer, Council for European Studies, June 5. Read here

2018     The New Yorker, “The World of Fashion: The Chinese Workers Who Assemble Designer Bags in Tuscany,” D.T. Max, author, April 16. Read here

2017     SiriusXM Satellite Business Radio, “In the Workplace,” The Wharton School, co-hosted by Peter Cappelli, Professor of Management, December 7. 

2016     HuffPost, Elizabeth L. Krause, Katie Waldron, and Aline Gubrium. Exposing Double Standards Young Moms Face. May 6, 2016. Read here

2015     HuffPost, Aline Gubrium and Elizabeth L. Krause. Senate's Proposed 2016 Budget Turns a Deaf Ear to the Needs of Young Families, April 24, 2015. Read here

2015     Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aline Gubrium and Elizabeth L. Krause. New Milwaukee Teen Pregnancy Prevention Campaign is Misguided, Cruel, January 22, 2015.

2015     Prato Storia & Arte, Elizabeth L. Krause. The Value of Money: A Fresh Glimpse of Globalization and the Case of Prato. (June):100–110. Prato: Fondazione Cassa Risparmio di Prato.

2014     Truthout.org, Elizabeth L. Krause, and Massimo Bressan. Slow Rites, Fast Wrongs. Read here

2013     ABC-CLIO, Krause, Elizabeth L. Challenging the Common Sense of Birth-Heritage Politics. World Geography: Understanding a Changing World.  27 August.

2009     Anthropology News, Elizabeth L. Krause. Writing as Politics, Association for Political and Legal Anthropology Section News, May, 50(5):46.

2008     The Arizona Daily Star, Elizabeth L. Krause. Intimate Borton School Puts the Children First, Guest Opinion, April 3: A9.

REPORTS (RECENT)

“Diversity and Discipline: Inspirations and Impediments to Writing an Honors Thesis.” Terrence Murray Professorship, Commonwealth Honors College, Co-authored with Elizabeth L. Krause, Anthony Clough, and Ying Li. May 31, 2023. Access here

• Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Award, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2024)
• Terrence Murray Professorship, Commonwealth Honors College, UMass Amherst (2021–2023)
• Residential Scholar, School of Anthropology, University of Arizona (Fall 2020)
• Fellow, National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC (2013–2014)            
• William A. Douglass Prize in Europeanist Anthropology, Finalist (2019). Tight Knit: Global Families and the Social Life of Fast Fashion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.   
• Dean’s Excellence in Research Award, College of Social and Behavioral Science, UMass Amherst (2018)
• Most Notable Recent Edited Collection, Council on Anthropology and Reproduction, Reproduction and Biopolitics: Ethnographies of Governance, “Irrationality” and Resistance, Silvia De Zordo and Milena Marchesi, eds. Introduction, Elizabeth L. Krause and Silvia De Zordo. London: Routledge (2015)
• Polgar Prize, Society for Medical Anthropology, Best Article, “They Just Happened”: The Curious Case of the Unplanned Baby, Italian Low Fertility, and the “End” of Rationality, Medical Anthropology Quarterly 26(3):361–382. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago (2013)
• Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2011)
• Most Notable Recent Edited Collection, Council on Anthropology and Reproduction, Barren States: The Population ‘Implosion’ in Europe. Carrie B. Douglass, ed. (2006). Chapter contribution, Elizabeth L. Krause, ‘Toys and Perfumes’: Imploding Italy’s Population Paradox and Motherly Myths. Pp. 159-182. London: Berg (2005)
• The Edward P. Dozier Award, Best Paper, The University of Arizona (1993)

GRANTS (EXTERNAL)

• National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG), Citizenship in the City: Everyday Possibilities and Constraints of Political Agency in South Central Los Angeles. PI with Co-PI Karl Lyn. Awarded February 15, 2024. ($31,500).
• National Science Foundation, “Chinese Immigration and Family Encounters in Italy” (BCS-1157218), June 1, 2012-August 31, 2016 (PI, $164,419).
• Creative Economies Initiative Fund, University of Massachusetts President’s Office, Cultivating Creative Economies through Digital Storytelling Labs, Co-PI Aline Gubrium, 2016-2018. ($28,861).
• National Science Foundation, “Chinese Immigration and Family Encounters in Italy” (BCS 1157218), Supplement, Research Experience for Graduate Students (REG), Diasporic Heritage and Overseas Chinese, on behalf of Ying Li, May 1, 2015-April 30, 2016 (PI, $5,000).
• National Humanities Center, Fellow, 2013-14, “Tight Knit: Familistic Encounters in a Transnational Fast-Fashion Zone,” Research Triangle Park, NC. (PI, $50,998).
• Ford Foundation, “Hear Our Stories: Diasporic Youth for Sexual and Reproductive Health,” in response to the RFP, “Sexuality, Health and Rights Among Youth in the United States: Transforming Public Policy and Public Understanding Through Social Science Research,” December 1, 2012-November 30, 2014 (Co-PI with Aline Gubrium, $500,000).
• Wenner-Gren Foundation, International Collaborative Research Grant, (ICRG-114), “Tight Knit: Familistic Encounters in a Fast-Fashion District,” July 1, 2012-Dec. 31, 2013 (PI with Co-Applicant Massimo Bressan, $34,741).
• Wenner-Gren Foundation, Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship. “Fertile Protest: Memory, Demographic Decline and Economic Angst in Italy.” Awarded for 12 months full-time writing, January 2005-2006 (PI, $40,000).
• U.S. Fulbright Grant and Renewal, Dissertation Fieldwork, “Natalism and Nationalism: The Political Economy of Love, Labor and Low Fertility in Central Italy.” October 1995-August 1997.

Economies & Cultures (ANTH 210)
Italy: Fascism to Fashion (ANTH 344)
Problems in Anthropology (ANTH 364)
Sex, Reproduction, and Culture (ANTH 226)
Global Bodies (ANTH 494BI)
Writing Ethnography (ANTH 638)
Ethnographic Data Analysis (ANTH 639)

Graduate Certificate in Ethnographic Research