Katherine A. Bowie

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1988
Professor of Anthropology
At UW-Madison since 1988

Cultural Anthropology

Affiliations: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and Development Studies

Research

My current research focuses on the politics of gender and religion in Thailand.  In 2004 a national controversy erupted over a northern Thai taboo which forbad women from entering sacred spaces in Buddhist temples.  My fascination with this controversy is leading me to explore the history of this “ancient” northern taboo, the legal debates over opposed clauses in the 1997 Thai Constitution which protect both equal rights for women and the right to pursue local customs, the underlying conflict over the legalization of a Theravada Buddhist lineage of nuns (bhikkuni), and the extent of regional variation in contemporary interpretations of Buddhism.

Teaching

I teach a range of classes from introductory courses in anthropology to graduate courses in anthropological theory.  More specialized courses I teach include Peoples and Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia, Political Anthropology, Anthropology of the State, Anthropology of Capitalism, Historical Anthropology, Peasant Politics and more recently courses on Theravada Buddhism.

Select Publications

• Bowie, Katherine A. (2006)
  Of Corvee and Slavery: Historical Intricacies of the Division of Labor and State Power in Northern Thailand. Labor in Cross-Cultural Perspective.  Society of Economic Anthropology Monograph Series Volume 22.  Edited by E. Paul Durrenberger and Judith E. Marti.  Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, pp. 245-264.
• Bowie, Katherine A. (1998)
  The Alchemy of Charity:  Of Class and Buddhism in Northern Thailand. American Anthropologist 100(2):469-481.
• Bowie, Katherine A., editor and translator (1998)
  Voices from the Thai Countryside:  The Necklace and Other Short Stories of Samruam Singh. Revised edition. Madison, Wisconsin:  Center of Southeast Asia Publication Series. Monograph 17.
• Bowie, Katherine A. (1997)
  Rituals of National Loyalty:  An Anthropology of the State and the Village Scout Movement in Thailand. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Bowie, Katherine A. (1993)
  Cloth and the Fabric of Northern Thai Society in the Nineteenth Century: From Peasants in Cotton to Lords in Silks. American Ethnologist 20(1):138-158.
• Bowie, Katherine A. (1992)
  Unraveling the Myth of the Subsistence Economy:  The Case of Textile Production in Nineteenth Century Northern Thailand. Journal of Asian Studies 51(4):797-823.

Curriculum Vitae

Katherine Bowie CV

Contact

Office: 5436 Sewell Social Science Bldg.
Office phone: (608) 262-2132 or 2866
Email address:  kabowie@wisc.edu