University’s Freeman Lecture celebrates black women entrepreneurs

COLUMBIA, SC – September 17, 2008 – Georgia State University sociologist Dr. Adia Harvey Wingfield, author of “Doing Business with Beauty: Black Women, Hair Salons, and the Racial Enclave Economy,” will deliver the Adrenée Glover Freeman Memorial Lecture in African American Women’s Studies Wednesday, Oct. 15, in the auditorium of the University of South Carolina School of Law.

The 7 p.m. lecture is free and open to the public and will focus on businesses – particularly hair salons – owned by women of color, which are growing faster than the overall economy. Wingfield’s new book explores several facets of the business of owning a hair salon, including the process of becoming an owner, the dynamics of the owner-employee relationship and the factors that steer black women to work in the hair industry.

A graduate of Spelman College, Wingfield earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Johns Hopkins University and specializes in the impact of race and gender in professional and non-professional workplaces. Her article, “Racializing the Glass Escalator: Reconsidering Men’s Experiences with Women’s Work,” focuses on black male nurses and will appear in the December issue of “Gender & Society.”

As part of the evening, Dr. Dianne “Dinah” Johnson, professor of English at the University of South Carolina and last year’s speaker, will present a slide show of photographs from her book, “Hair Dance,” and will discuss the portrayal of the black body in American children’s literature.

The Freeman Lecture was established in 1993 in memory of the Columbia attorney who was active in civic affairs and served on the Community Advisory Board of the Women’s Studies Program. It is cosponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the African American Studies Program.

For more information, contact Paulette Jimenez at 777-4200 or [email protected].

For more information on other Women’s Studies program events please visit the Web site at www.cas.sc.edu/wost/.