Professor Kathleen M Adams

Kathleen M. Adams is a Professorial Research Associate in Anthropology. She is also a Fulbright Specialist in Critical Tourism Studies (2023-2026) and a Professor Emerita at Loyola University Chicago. She received her Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Washington and completed additional Indonesian Studies at Cornell University and Universitas Kristin Satya Wacana on Java. 

As a cultural and museum anthropologist, Adams’ research focuses on critical tourism studies, cultural heritage, arts and museums, and the politics of identity, nationalism, and tourism. Adams has authored and co-edited numerous books, including three award-winners. Her first solo-authored book, Art as Politics: Re-crafting Identities, Tourism and Power in Tana Toraja, Indonesia (University of Hawai’i Press, 2006, republished in Indonesian in 2022) received the 2009 Alpha Sigma Nu National Book Award. Her book, The Ethnography of Tourism: Edward Bruner and Beyond (co-edited with Naomi Leite and Quetzil Castañeda, Roman and Littlefield, 2019) was awarded the 2020 Edward Bruner Book Prize by The Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group of the American Anthropological Association. Her most recent book, The Intersections of Tourism, Migration, and Exile (co-edited with Natalia Bloch, Routledge, 2023) received the 2024 Edward Bruner Book Prize by The Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group of the American Anthropological Association. 

Adams’ research and teaching contributions have earned recognition by various institutions and organizations. She was awarded the 2026 Roy Wolfe Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field and Discipline of Recreation, Tourism, and Sport Geography from the American Association of Geographers’ Specialty Group on Tourism, Leisure and Mobilities (formerly the Recreation, Tourism and Sport Specialty Group). In 2023, the American Anthropological Association’s Council on Heritage and the Anthropology of Tourism established an annual student paper prize named after her. Adams was also recognized as one of the “300 Best Professors” in the USA and Canada by The Princeton Review (2012), and she has received Loyola University Chicago’s highest teaching and research excellence awards. 

In Press “Like a Bridge over Troubled Water? Fieldwork, Publicly-Engaged Scholarship, and Trafficked Indonesian Mortuary Materials.” For Pragmatic Imagination and the New Museum Anthropology (C. Hodge and C. Kreps, eds.). Bloomsbury/Routledge. Exp. Publication: Fall 2023.

“Identity, Heritage, and Memorialization: The Toraja Tongkonan of Indonesia.” In Riello and Gerritsen (eds.), Writing Material Culture History, 2nd Edition. London: Bloomsbury.

“(Post-) Pandemic Tourism Resiliency: Southeast Asian Lives and Livelihoods in Limbo.” Co-authored with J. Choe, M. Mostafanezhad, and T. Phi. Tourism Geographies. 

“Tourism as Industry and Field of Study: Using Research and Education to Address Overtourism.” (with P. Sanchez). In Overtourism and Education: Strategies for Sustainable Futures (Séraphin & Yallop, eds.). Routledge.

“The Politics of Indigeneity and Heritage: Indonesian Mortuary Materials and Museums.” Museum Worlds. 8(1): 68-87.

“What Western Tourism Concepts Obscure: Intersections of Migration and Tourism in Indonesia.” Tourism Geographies, 1-26. 

“Intangible Heritage as a Tourist Destination: Contributing to Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage through Sustainable Tourism” Introduction to special issue of Volkskunde (with A. van der Zeijden et al.). 121(4): 519-548.

“Returns Unraveled: Reflections on Appropriate Destinies for Museum Objects with Questionable Pasts,” (with J. van Beurden & P. Catteeuw). Volkskunde 120(3): 305-339.