State of the Field

We are three Ph.D. candidates in the humanities, who believe that academia and fashion are not at odds. When beginning graduate school we each had an existential wardrobe crisis. What does one wear in grad school anyway? We recognized that our undergraduate hoodies and jeans were no longer appropriate but were unwilling to accept the shoulder-padded khaki polyester suit that was ubiquitous among our female professors. As feminist scholars, we were also forced to reconcile the perceived-superficiality of our interest in style with our academic commitment to questioning gender and class essentialisms.

Today, in the face of all our eye-rolling colleagues, we defiantly wear dresses, fitted jackets, and pointy toe shoes. To teach in. And sometimes just to the library!

But don’t worry. We’ve done our research on this one too. Cultural critic Fred Davis calls fashion “a visual language, with its own distinctive grammar, syntax, and vocabulary.” Theorist Judith Butler, in Gender Trouble, points to the power of clothing to create and constantly recreate identity. And even philosopher Charles Baudelaire praised cosmetics and garments for creating beauty where nature fails. In short, fashion is a powerful tool for creating identity, subverting class or gender norms, performing self, and appreciating aesthetic beauty.

This won’t be our dissertation, but it might keep us sane in the mean time. With this project we hope to inspire other academics to embrace their love of clothes, to create unique and beautiful outfits, and to engage in a metadialogue about the art, literature, and garments that can move us all.

For posts that deal specifically with issues of academia, gender, and fashion, visit our Theoretical category. Be sure to look at the comments on these posts as well for some thoughtful, provocative discussion from our readers!

About Us:

	A: Teaching, attending meetings and guest lectures, advising undergraduates, running a graduate LGBT organization, and various other daily campus activities give her plenty of reasons to get dressed every day and just as many reasons to not work on writing her dissertation.
	E: Finishing up course work, circling around a dissertation topic, and learning to make baby food. E. is trying to mesh motherhood and academia in one stylish package.
	S: Formerly a daily contributor, S. is now on academichic sabbatical while writing her dissertation and lecturing at a large research university. An avid believer in ‘cycle chic‘, she prefers getting around by bike even on teaching days. You can find her in the archives of this site, on her bike blog, or when doing the occasional guest post here.

On Sponsorship:

We are excited to be working with several artists and small businesses whose products reflect our standards of style, comfort, and quality. It is important to us to be transparent about these partnerships to our readers. When we endorse a product from a paying sponsor of our site, we always categorize the item as “Academichic Sponsor”. When we receive a product for review and we like the product, we feature it on our site and categorize it as “Academichic Product Review”. Product Reviews are not paid endorsements and only reflect our opinion of the featured item. We list the sources of all the items we wear as best as we can in an attempt to inform our readers of where and how to find similar pieces should they be interested in acquiring them for themselves.

If you’re a reader and have any questions about the items featured on our site, feel free to contact us via email or a comment on the site. If you’re a business or artist, we currently have sponsorships and ad space available. Please contact us via email for information on our sponsorship tiers.