Kimberley McKinson, anthropology graduate student, has received a $25,200 National Science Foundation Fellowship Award to study how contemporary forms of home security - such as metal gates, grills and burglar bars - are linked to narratives of control and discipline dating back to Caribbean slavery. As these items become artifacts replaced by newer technology, will the island nation's history and memories of slavery also become relics? To investigate these and other questions McKinson is conducting interviews with residents, metal artisans and electronic security companies in the capital city of Kingston.

Her grant is supporting travel and research which began in September and will run through February 2016.