July 13, 1999
Kral has received a Fulbright scholarship for the 1999-2000 academic year for a doctoral project that will take her first to Mexico to research the roles of women in their home communities and then to Garden City.
One of the fastest-growing communities in Kansas, Garden City sits on the High Plains approximately 50 miles east of the Colorado line. The city's growth includes an influx of new immigrants to help supply a labor market, particularly in meatpacking.
Kral's research evolved from a 1996 study she made in Garden City for a master's degree in anthropology. Kral spent eight weeks as the guest of a retired immigrant couple who helped her make contacts among new Garden City immigrants. Her master's study focused on rental housing, landlord-tenant relationships and housing costs.
Kral observed that in immigrant families women are often the first to locate and use social services, including classes teaching English as a foreign language. Kral is interested in how new immigrant women find resources typically provided by extended families in their home country. For her doctorate, Kral will compare women's social and economic roles in Mexican communities with those of Mexican women recently migrated to Garden City. Her research is based on immigration studies initiated by Don Stull, KU anthropologist and Kral's dissertation adviser.
Kral received her bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Akron in Ohio. A Foreign Language Fellowship in Area Studies from KU and a Tinker grant through KU's Center of Latin American Studies have also helped fund Kral's graduate study.
During July, she is teaching an interdisciplinary course in women's studies at KU. After Aug. 30, Kral will be in Mexico.
Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853 or e-mail mjdunlap@ukans.edu