The Chronicle of Higher Education: Colloquy

COLLOQUY

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The debate over dress and brains takes on a peculiar twist for non-American nationals, at the job interview or on the job. To dress in non-western clothes is to invite disapproving looks, gawks, or irritating comments such as: "nice costume!," or "how colorful!"

I have always loved creating fashionable clothes and paid my way through school working at it professionally. Why should dressing fashionably and being academically competent be considered mutually exclusive? If that tenure decision should hang by a thread (pun intended) because of the delicate embroidery of a professor's favorite "agbada" dress and not her/his professional record... what does that say about the evaluators, and the academic world itself?

-- Esi Dogbe, Assistant Professor, Pan African Studies, Univ. of Louisville, KY (posted 2/20, 10:30 a.m., E.S.T.)
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