Last week we welcomed Dr. Heather Akou back to Minneapolis as our last Library Salon Series speaker for the spring season. Akou had previously spent time here getting her PhD from the University of Minnesota, focusing on non-Western fashion – particularly fashion within the Somali community in the Twin Cities. She spent her time discussing her new role as director of Indiana University's Sage Fashion Collection, a prestigious research collection of primarily Western garments and costumes, and her goal to update its collecting criteria and policies to include more examples of non-Western fashion. She also touched on her personal areas of research, including African fashion collecting practices in museums and Islamic fashion.

The role that fashion plays in forming and expressing identity has been explored in numerous fields of study, and we’ve learned that exposure to different cultures through their style choices brings humanity to the forefront. Akou’s passion for the stories that are told through what we wear is evident in this short interview that we did with her while she was here.