Leonard, Karen Isaksen 1939-

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LEONARD, Karen Isaksen 1939-

PERSONAL: Born December 4, 1939, in Madison, WI; daughter of Leon Irwin (a lawyer) and Edith (a librarian; maiden name, Kelly) Isaksen; married John Greenfield Leonard (a professor), January 26, 1962 (deceased); children: Samuel Harris, Sarah Elizabeth. Education: Attended University of Delhi, 1961-62; University of Wisconsin, Madison, B.A. (with high honors), 1962, M.A., 1964, Ph.D., 1969. Politics: Democrat.

ADDRESSES: Home—10454 Cheviot Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90064. Offıce—Department of Anthropology, 4283 Social Sciences Plaza B, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Anthropologist. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, associate, 1967-68, visiting lecturer in history, 1968; University of San Diego, CA, lecturer in history, 1969; University of California—San Diego, lecturer in history, 1969-70; University of California—Irvine, assistant professor, 1972-78, associate professor, 1978-85, professor of anthropology, 1985—, director of women's studies, 1978-79. University of Virginia, visiting assistant professor, 1978; referee for the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and academic presses.

MEMBER: Phi Beta Kappa (Mortar Board, 1962).

AWARDS, HONORS: National Defense Foreign Language fellowship, 1962-66; Ford Foundation fellowship, University of Chicago, 1963; University of Chicago research fellowship, 1967; American Institute of Indian Studies faculty research fellowship, 1970-71, 1976, 1983; University of California—Irvine, various fellowships and grants; Fulbright fellowship, Pakistan, 1992-93; CAORC Smithsonian grant, 1995-96; Rupee grant, His Exalted Highness the Nizam's Charitable Trust, 1995-96; Global Peace and Conflict Studies grant to Uzbekistan, 1999.

WRITINGS:

Social History of an Indian Caste: The Kayasths of Hyderabad, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1978.

Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexican Americans, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1994.

Finding One's Own Place: Asian Landscapes ReVisioned in Rural California, in Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1997.

The South Asian Americans ("New Americans" series), Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1997.

Muslims in the United States: The State of Research, Russell Sage Foundation (New York, NY), 2003.

Work represented in books, including Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology, edited by James Ferguson, Akhil Gupta, and Roger Rouse, 1994; Women, Communities, and Cultures: South Asians in America, edited by S. Hazumdar and J. Vaid, 1994; and Expanding Landscapes, edited by Carla Petievich, 1994; reviewer for the Journal of Asian Studies, American Anthropologist, Amerasia Journal, International Migration Review, and American Ethnologist; contributor to professional journals.

SIDELIGHTS: Anthropologist Karen Isaksen Leonard has written a number of volumes about subjects related to her field of expertise. Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexican Americans is a history of the immigration, mostly of males, to the West Coast from India, early in the twentieth century, and the establishment of the Hindu (a label applied to all South Asian immigrants of the period, no matter what their religion) community. The approximately 7,000 men were restricted in their pursuit of economic and political advancement, and they took work as agricultural laborers in the Imperial, Sacramento, and San Joaquin Valleys of California. They married Mexican-American women, creating a subculture that was seen as detrimental to their native culture by some, and as a way of revitalizing their culture by others.

Children of these unions were typically given Hispanic first names, spoke both English and Spanish, and were raised Catholic by their mothers, while their fathers spent most of their time trying to earn a living in the fields. Since being Hindu meant attaining a higher rung on the social ladder than did being Hispanic, the second generation identified mostly with their paternal heritage, but as they married, it was to other Hispanics or Anglos.

Previous studies have been place and time-oriented, but Leonard's work, noted Gary R. Hess in Pacific Historical Review, "is far more comprehensive. Based on extensive research in fragmentary (and often confusing and inconsistent) documents and on interviews with some ninety descendents of immigrants, she concludes that Punjab-Americans, as she labels the biethnic families, employed ethnic identity flexibly in adjusting to a plural society."

Bruce La Brack wrote in the Journal of American Ethnic History that Making Ethnic Choices "is an extraordinary work. . . . In the midst of contemporary discussions about multiculturalism, politically correct positions, and valuing diversity, this book would be a fine place to begin a thoughtful consideration on the potential multiplicity of meanings ethnicity may have for human beings—and how fluid, flexible, and complex it may actually be."

In The South Asian Americans, one of the books in the Greenwood Press "New Americans" series, Leonard dedicates an essay chapter to the Punjab-Americans. "Clearly, this subject is Leonard's forte," noted Vasudha Narayanan in Journal of American Ethnic History. The remaining chapters are more survey-like, and include a generous number of tables and statistics. Leonard explores immigration patterns of various peoples who have come to the United States from countries that include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Afghanistan. She also notes how the new Americans have adapted to American culture, work, religious traditions, family life, and the role of women. She documents the differences between and among the cultures of the immigrants themselves, studying how their food, music, dance, arts, and literature have evolved in America.

"The Chapters form really quick surveys," wrote Narayanan, "but the profiles drawn are accurate, with almost an 'insider's' knowledge of the nuances of the South Asian immigrant life here." Leonard writes that Indian grocery stores follow the Korean, rather than the "Mom and Pop" model, and of bharata natyam classical dance classes and Cleveland's Tyagaraja Aradhana music festival, in honor of the composer who lived two centuries ago. Narayanan wrote that "she has it all covered in this volume."

Pacific Affairs contributor Verne A. Dusenbery wrote that Leonard "shows herself to be a skillful and unpretentious writer" and noted that one of her strengths "is her refreshing honesty and willingness to interject her own opinions into the text, even when this involves taking issue with other academic narratives or South Asian American self-representations." Leonard intends this volume for two audiences—those who wish to better understand South Asian immigrants, and the immigrants and their ancestors themselves. Dusenbery felt that "the former, including undergraduates in Asian American or American ethnic studies courses, will be suitably informed . . . while the latter may find themselves surprisingly challenged."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Hispanic American Historical Review, February, 1997, review of Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexican Americans, p. 94.

Journal of American Ethnic History, fall, 1994, Bruce La Brack, review of Making Ethnic Choices, p. 119; fall, 1999, Vasudha Narayanan, review of The South Asian Americans, p. 82.

Journal of American History, March, 1994, review of Making Ethnic Choices, p. 1502.

Pacific Affairs, summer, 1999, Verne A. Dusenbery, review of The South Asian Americans, p. 318.

Pacific Historical Review, August, 1994, Gary R. Hess, review of Making Ethnic Choices, p. 448.

Western Historical Quarterly, autumn, 1995, review of Making Ethnic Choices, p. 378.