- Pronouns:
- she/her/hers
- Email:
- hakou@iu.edu
- Campus:
- IU Bloomington
Work
Education
- Ph.D., Design, Housing & Apparel, University of Minnesota, 2005
- M.A., Design, Housing & Apparel, University of Minnesota, 2001
- B.A., Studio Art, Macalester College, 1998
About
Dr. Heather Akou is a historian of fashion, dress, and the body. Her research interests include African dress and fashion, contemporary Islamic fashion, working-class histories of dress in the United States, uniforms, political rhetoric and lawmaking surrounding dress and the body, secret society regalia, personal narratives, historical fiction, and fashion curation. She teaches courses in the Fashion Studies concentration including fashion history (F340), fashion theory (F406), cultural aspects of dress (F301), and autobiographies of dress and the body (F312/F512). Dr. Akou is the co-founder and co-director of the Dress and Body Association and serves on the editorial board of Dress as well as the editorial advisory board for Bloomsbury Fashion Central.
At IU, Dr. Akou is a core member of the MA in Curatorship program, an adjunct Professor in Art History, Anthropology, and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and an affiliate of the African Studies Program, Islamic Studies Program, and the Center for Studies of the Middle East. She is currently President-Elect of the Bloomington Faculty Council and an advisor to the Mellon-funded Black Humanities in the Midwest project.
Recent Publications
Heather Akou (2025), Afterthought: A Family Story, Bloomington: Indiana University Libraries (https://iulibscholcomm.github.io/afterthought).
Heather Akou (2024), On the Job: A History of American Work Uniforms, London: Bloomsbury Academic.
JoAnn McGregor, Heather Akou, and Nicola Stylianou, eds. (2022), Creating African Fashion Histories: Politics, Museums, and Sartorial Practices, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Heather Akou (2022), “Islamic Fashion,” Routledge Handbook of Islamic Ritual and Practice, ed. Oliver Leaman, New York: Routledge, pp. 314-324.
Heather Akou (2022), “Beyond Listening: Systemic Transformation in Fashion Studies and Fashion Collections,” African Arts, 55(2): pp. 6-7.
Heather Akou (2021), ‘Playing Pocahontas: Secret Society Regalia for Women in the United States, 1900-1950,’ The Journal of Dress History, 5(5): pp. 8-42
Heather Akou (2021), 'Telling History through Costumes,’ The Art of the Character: Highlights from the Glenn Close Costume Collection, London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers, pp. 55-63.
Heather Akou (2020), “Food-Service Uniforms and the Symbolism(s) of Wearing a Mask,” Clothing Cultures, 7(2): pp. 147-163.
Heather Akou (2020), ‘Prison Uniforms on the Outside: Intersections with US Popular Culture,’ Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, 7(4): pp. 473-499.
Heather Akou (2020), ‘Freedom of Speech: A Recent History of Political T-shirts in the United States, Clothing Cultures, special issue on ‘Dress During Times of Unrest,’ 6(2): pp. 179-198.