The Talented Dr. Irma McClaurin, Activist Anthropologist, Poet, Faculty Member, Consultant, and More...

Dr. Irma McClaurin (Source: Irma McClaurin Solutions, Inc.)

 

It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to activist anthropologist, Irma McClaurin.  She has blazed an astonishing career, and she demonstrates no possibilities of stopping anytime soon.  I share her story as I hope it inspires you to do great things as she has already and continues to do.

 

Irma McClaurin was born in Chicago, and in her own words, “I don’t come from great wealth.  I don’t come from a very long tradition of people going to college.”  These are often obstacles that deter individuals from going to college and earning a degree, but McClaurin did not allow these to be roadblocks.  She earned her Bachelors in American Studies in 1973, which she quickly followed up with a Masters in Fine Arts (English) from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst just three years later.  She actually did not earn her PhD in Anthropology until 1993.  It was during that time that she undertook her doctoral research and studied womanhood in Belize.  It was through this research that she realized that the struggles women of Belize faced were no different than those she experienced growing up in the United States, which sent her on the trajectory to make positive changes for those who have often been denied a voice both throughout history and today.

 

She has since become a prolific author, publishing several books of poetry and numerous nonfiction books and journal articles.  She has been bestowed various honors and awards throughout her career.  She has served as a professor at various institutions, as well as became the first female President of Shaw University, a Historically Black College and University and Chief Diversity Officer at Teach For America.  She is currently a faculty member and founder of the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

 

McClaurin founded the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive as a means of preserving histories, stories, documents, etc. pertaining to Black women’s stories and histories.  She was inspired to create this archive when she was conducting research on the anthropological work of Zora Neale Hurston, who is better known as a creative writer.  McClaurin believes that Hurston’s anthropological work has been largely ignored because it focused on African American people, culture, and their livelihoods, which are topics not readily addressed in history.  To this end she is actively working on digitizing the Archives collections so they are available to all members of the public, not just those with the means of traveling to Amherst.   As she put it, “I’m very attuned to how we preserve the things of those who don’t have the access or the privilege of working at a university.”

 

In addition to her academic work McClaurin is also a business owner.  She runs Irma McClaurin Solutions, Inc.  Her work focuses on organizational and leadership development.  She also advertises herself as available for various social justice work, including but not limited to serving as a social justice policy maker and Immigration and Asylum Expert Witness.  

 

 

Works Cited

Lewis, Eshe. "Preserving Black Women’s Stories as a Labor of Love." 21 October 2021. Sapiens. Electronic. 22 December 2022.

McClaurin, Irma. "Irma McClaurin." 14 June 2000. University of Florida. Electronic. 22 December 2022.

—. Irma McClaurin Solutions. 2018. Electronic. 22 December 2022.

Saint Louis, Christina. "Dr. Irma McClaurin, Activist Anthropologist." 29 June 2018. Crewomen.org. Electronic. 22 December 2022.

 

 

Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Tina Lasisi, Biological Anthropologist & Science Communicator

Dr. Tina Lasisi (Source: www.tinalasisi.com)

 

Today’s blog post features a research anthropologist whose work has applied anthropological applications.  Dr. Tina Lasisi’s research on the evolution of human hair has sought to untangle some mysteries and biases concerning the biological diversity and variability present in hair.  Today’s blog post will discuss Dr. Lasisi’s journey to studying human hair, the impact of her research in the academy, how she is communicating those results to the non-scholarly community, and where she is going from here.

 

Dr. Tina Lasisi became interested in understanding hair while she was taking an introductory biological anthropology course at Cambridge University.  It was during the lecture that discussed human skin color variability as the result of biological adaptations to sun exposure that she began to understand more about how and why she and those around her looked different.  While that answered one of curiosities it led her to wonder about a topic that was not discussed in class: hair.  If skin color existed on a spectrum and was the result of biological adaptations could the same concept be applied to hair?  She asked her course instructor and other anthropology faculty and researchers, but no one had an answer for her.  All they could say was that she brought up and interesting research question, one that she should pursue if she wanted to learn more. 

 

And pursue is exactly what she did. 

 

She graduated from Cambridge University and pursued her graduate work under the supervision of Dr. Nina Jablonski, a biological anthropologist who has dedicated much of her research to understanding skin color variation.  Dr. Jablonski was just one member of a team of interdisciplinary researchers who worked with Lasisi on her research on human hair variability.  Her initial research found very little study on the topic, and what had been done was mired in racial prejudices and stereotypes.  The reason there was so little study on this topic was the fear among scholars of promoting the prejudices that had formed the initial literature on these topics, but Lasisi was dedicated to her research and believed that there was an ethical, responsible, and scientifically appropriate means of completing her work.  She found and built off a study by Harvard anthropologist, Daniel Hrdy, who had initially classified hair types by curl structure.  From there she pioneered new ways of scientifically understanding hair morphology, followed by undertaking her study concerning how and why hair variability exists.  For this she worked alongside anthropologists, thermal engineers, and physiologists, who conducted a series of experiments to determine how various hair types aided in heat regulation.  Ultimately, she discovered that the curlier the hair the better able it was at keeping the head, and ultimately body, cool, while the flatter the hair the better adapted it was at keeping the head and body warm.

 

Lasisi continues her research on human hair, ancestry, and race as she is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Southern California.  She has identified new areas of research that should be pursued, particularly related to hair health.  She hopes that her previous research will be used in medical studies, such as in better understanding how hair type may or may not contribute to hair loss.  She will be leaving her post-doctoral fellowship this year as she begins her Assistant Professor position at the University of Michigan in the fall semester.

 

Outside of her academic work she is also a dedicated science communicator.  According to her website she states: “My mission is to break that narrative by empowering people to curious about (rather than afraid of) the fascinating nature of human biological diversity.”  To this end she has been involved in a PBS program that seeks to educate viewers about human biological diversity.  She has also created various videos and content concerning her research and race and ancestry that she has disseminated on various social media platforms.  She is regularly interviewed by various news outlets and science organizations.  She is definitely not shy about getting her message out there, which is a blessing since topics related to race remain contemporary issues that must be appropriately addressed to remove prejudicial biases and empower people to be happy with who they are, skin, hair, and all.

 

References

Abell, A. (2022, September 29). Tina Lasisi wants to untangle the evolution of human hair. ScienceNews.

Kwong, E., & Ramirez, R. (2022, February 14). How to Talk About Hair Like a Scientist. NPR.

Lasisi, T. (2022). Retrieved from TinaLasisi.com: https://www.tinalasisi.com/

Seo, H. (2022, March 9). Untangling Race From Hair. Retrieved from Sapiens: https://www.sapiens.org/biology/hair-race-evolution/