WOC Books in Print: Kemi Balogun

ABOUT THIS EVENT

The CSWS Women of Color Project presents a discussion of Beauty Diplomacy: Embodying an Emerging Nation (Stanford University Press, Globalization in Everyday Life Series, 2020) by Oluwakemi “Kemi” Balogun, 3-5 p.m. Friday, March 5, 2021. Registration is required for this event.

Balogun is an associate professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. She is affiliated with African studies, global studies, and indigenous, race and ethnic studies at University of Oregon. According to the publisher, “Beauty Diplomacy takes us inside the world of Nigerian beauty contests to see how they are transformed into contested vehicles for promoting complex ideas about gender and power, ethnicity and belonging, and a rapidly changing articulation of Nigerian nationhood. Drawing on four case studies of beauty pageants, this book examines how Nigeria’s changing position in the global political economy and existing cultural tensions inform varied forms of embodied nationalism, where contestants are expected to integrate recognizable elements of Nigerian cultural identity while also conveying a narrative of a newly-emerging, globally-relevant Nigeria.”