Kimberly DaCosta Holton

Kimberly DaCosta Holton's research focuses primarily on expressive culture in Iberia and the Lusophone diaspora. She is particularly interested in the intersection between music, migration and politics. Holton's research fields also include 20th century Portuguese and Brazilian literature, performance theory, urban festivity, urban ethnography, migration and memory studies, oral history, theories of globalism, nation, diaspora and space. Holton is the founder and director of the Ironbound Oral History Project, a collection of over 250 oral history interviews with Portuguese-speaking migrants of NJ/NY. She has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Institute for Research on Women. Holton is currently at work on a book about fado performance in the US. 

PhD, Performance Studies, Northwestern University
MA, Performance Studies, Northwestern University
BA, Performance Studies, Northwestern University

Portuguese Literature in English Translation: Tales of Travel; Portuguese Literature in English Translation: Writing Places; Oral History of the Ironbound; Post-Revolutionary Portuguese Literature and Culture; Soccer, Samba and Spiritualism: Performing the Nation in Portugal and Brazil; Migration Stories: Portuguese-American Literature and Culture; Urban Ethnography; Immigration and Performance (Graduate Class); Elementary Portuguese

Books

Community, Culture & The Makings of Identity: Portuguese-Americans along the Eastern Seaboard, co-edited with Andrea Klimt. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009.

 Performing Folklore: Ranchos Folclóricos from Lisbon to Newark. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005

Selected Articles and Chapters          

Studies (forthcoming)

“Spaces Undone and Remade: Fado Performance in a US Ethnic Enclave.” Fado Percursose

Perspectivas.  Eds. Salwa Castelo-Branco and Rui Vieira Nery (forthcoming).

“Sound Travel: Fadocore in California” Transnationalism in the Portuguese-Speaking

World. Eds. Hillary Owen and Claire Williams. Liverpool University Press. (in press)

“Fado in Diaspora: Online Internships and Self-Display Among YouTube Generation

Performers.”  Luso-Brazilian Review 53.1 (2016): 210-232.

“Lost and Found Folklore.”  Seismographic Sounds: Visions of a New World.  Eds.Teresa Beyer, Thomas Burkhalter and Hannes Liechti.  Norient: Network for Local and Global Sounds and Media Culture. Germany, 2015: 314-21.

 "Angola Dreaming: Memories of Africa among Portuguese Retornados in Newark, NJ." Community, Culture, and the Makings of Identity: Portuguese Americans along the Eastern Seaboard. Eds. Kimberly DaCosta Holton and Andrea Klimt. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009: 497-524.

 "Lusophone Studies in the US," Co-written with Andrea Klimt. Community, Culture, and the Makings of Identity: Portuguese Americans along the Eastern Seaboard. Eds. Kimberly DaCosta Holton and Andrea Klimt. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009: 9-23.

 “Dinámicas Migratórias em o Vale da Paixão.” Para Um Leitor Ignorado: Ensaios Sobre a Ficção de Lídia Jorge. Ed. Ana Paula Ferreira. Lisbon: Texto Editoras, 2009: 171-193.

 "Fado Historiography: Old Myths and New Frontiers." P:Portuguese Cultural Studies 0, Eds. Hillary Owen and Paulo de Medeiros, (Winter 2006):1-17

 “Pride, Prejudice and Politics: Portuguese Folklore Performance Amid Newark’s Urban Renaissance.” Etnográfica. IX, 1 (2005): 81-101.

 “Dancing Along the InBetween: Transmigration and Folklore Performance in Portuguese Newark.” Portuguese Studies Review. 11, 2 (2004): 153-82.

 "Fazer das Tripas Coração: O Parentesco Cultural nos Ranchos Folclóricos" Vozes do Povo: A Folclorização em Portugal. Eds. Salwa Castelo-Branco and Jorge Freitas Branco. Oeiras, Portugal: Celta Editora, 2003: 142-52.

 "Lisboa 94, Capital Europia da Cultura" Vozes do Povo: A Folclorização em Portugal. Eds. Salwa Castelo-Branco and Jorge Freitas Branco. Oeiras: Celta Editora, 2003: 17-1-90.

 "Bearing Material Witness to Musical Sound: Fado's L94 Museum Debut." Luso-Brazilian Review. 39, no.2 (2002): 107-123.

 "Dressing for Success: Lisbon as European Cultural Capital." Journal of American Folklore 111, no. 438 (1998): 174-96.

 "Like Blood in Your Mouth: Topographies of Flamenco Voice and Pedagogy in Diaspora." Text and Performance Quarterly 18, no.4 (1998): 300-18.