Imani Williford (History of Art and Architecture, 2018) has graduated with an MA in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Building on her research on Black artists and identity as an undergraduate at Pitt, where her senior thesis explored the work of Faith Ringgold, Williford’s MA research assessed the role of sartorial expression in the portraits of Barkley L. Hendricks. Her dissertation argued for Hendricks’ work to be understood ‘within the context of fashion and dress studies based on applying approaches of self-fashioning, the body’s response to branded clothing, and focusing on the appearance of an individual in a mass subject.’
As a student in the Courtauld’s special option on dress history, Imani also contributed to the program’s Documenting Fashion blog, including pieces on music videos in the museum and the Alexander McQueen archives. Read her posts at the Documenting Fashion blog.