The Palgrave Handbook of Fashion and Politics

This book examines how fashion intersects with political expression in the United States and across the globe. The chapters cover a diversity of perspectives, including experiences of men, minoritized people and women, and LGBTQ persons, as well as examining strategic choices by political actors ranging from dictators to elected officials and from protesters to mothers. Perhaps more importantly, this handbook allows chapters written about the US by mainly US-based academics to be in dialogue with scholarship about other regions of the world largely written by non-US and non-European scholars. Several chapters address regions of the world often understudied by political scientists, including Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, Liberia, Nigeria, and Cameroon); Asia (North Korea, Turkmenistan, Indonesia, and Pakistan); and Latin America (Argentina and Mexico). This work goes beyond the usual analyses that cast clothing choices as trivial or constraining and shows how political actors from dictators to elected officials and from citizen activists to social movement leaders incorporate strategic choices about their clothing – ranging from uniforms and business attire to hijab and traditional ethnic attire – in order to advance their political agendas. Karen M. Kedrowski is Director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University, USA. She is the author or coauthor of four books and numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her research focuses on women in US politics and civic engagement. Candice D. Ortbals is Professor of Political Science at Abilene Christian University, USA. Her publications relate to state feminism in spain and gender and terrorism. She has co-authored two books about terrorism. Lori Poloni-Staudinger is Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Professor in The School of Government and Public Policy at University of Arizona, USA. The author of five books and dozens of articles, Poloni-Staudinger's work focuses on gender and political violence, women and politics and social movements. J. Cherie Strachan is Director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, The University of Akron, USA. Her recent work explores the #MeToo movement and women’s political ambition, as well as the effects of partisan polarization, rudeness, and civility on political engagement.