"Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship"

Aimee Meredith Cox, PhD, returns to U-M to discuss her recent book Shapeshifters. In this book, Cox explores how young Black women in a Detroit homeless shelter contest stereotypes, critique their status as partial citizens, and negotiate poverty, racism, and gender violence to create and imagine lives for themselves.

Based on eight years of fieldwork at the Fresh Start shelter, Cox shows how the shelter's residents-who range in age from 15 to 22-employ strategic methods to disrupt the social hierarchies and prescriptive narratives that work to marginalize them. With Shapeshifters, Cox gives a voice to young Black women who find creative and non-normative solutions to the problems that come with being young, Black, and female in America.

Kelly Askew, Ph.D., Director of the African Studies Center and Professor of Anthropology and DAAS, will be in conversation with Dr. Cox as part of her book talk.

This program is free, and open to the public. Register Now!

This event is presented by the Center for the Education of Women and cosponsored by U-M Women's Studies, IRWG, the Munger Graduate Residences, Women of Color in the Academy Project, and the Department of Sociology.