crush of the week: professor tanisha c. ford

crush of the week: professor tanisha c. ford

the heavens opened and sent us professor tanisha c. ford, a scholar who studies fashion and feminism with a focus on women of color.  as an assistant professor of women, gender and sexuality at university of massachusetts amherst, she knows her stuff.

tanishacford_1342307948_45-274x300in an interview with feministing, professor ford talked about the inspiration behind her forthcoming book, liberated threads: black women and the politics of adornment:

when i was a kid, [my mother] use to adorn me in african-printed garments and “black is beautiful” t-shirts. as a graduate student, i began researching the civil rights and black power era. i realized that the way that black women activists like my mother dressed mattered because their bodies were contested spaces.  my interest in these stylish women sent me on a quest to understand how and why they adorned themselves in this way.

her book sounds like the politics & fashion manifesto with its investigation of “how black women in the united states, britain and south africa transformed the everyday act of getting dressed into a political strategy.” well, it looks like we have our first bookclub pick!

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outside of the academy, you can find professor ford on twitter at @soulistaphd and writing for the feminist wire.

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