Join us in congratulating Amanda Smith who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on Friday, December 1. Her dissertation opened a new, and hopefully lasting, focus of our program on Black collectivism and French Black women individuality. Titled “21st Century Black Beauty Resistance: Collectivism, Individuality and In/visibility in Black French Women's Body and Hair Representations,” the dissertation focused on a rich corpus of contemporary literature, activism, and media, and was supervised by Professor Felisa Vergara Reynolds (Director of Research, FRIT), with a committee composed of Faye V. Harrison (African American Studies and Anthropology) and Professors Julie Gaillard and François Proulx (FRIT).

Félicitations, Amanda!