ABOUT ME
Bert Ashe is an English and American Studies professor at the University of Richmond. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he spent time in radio and television broadcasting, in sales, at a market research firm, as an actor, and as a freelance writer before completing a B.A. in Communication Studies at San Jose State University, an M.A. in English at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the College of William and Mary. He teaches African American literature and popular culture, and has published widely on “post-blackness,” black hair, basketball and jazz.
His work on black hair includes “Invisible Dread” in Blackberries and Redbones: Critical Articulations of Black Hair/Body Politics in Africana Communities (Hampton Press); “’Hair Drama’ on the Cover of Vibe Magazine” in the Journal of Race, Gender & Class; “’Why don’t he like my hair?’: Constructing African-American Standards of Beauty in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God” in African American Review; and the forthcoming “Renegades in the Kitchen,” in The Hair Craft Project catalog. “For the last twenty-five years,” he says, “I’ve intently observed the impact black hair has had on African/American culture and the world, and I finally dove headlong into black hair culture myself when I decided to pay intimately close attention to the process of growing dreadlocks, as well as the reaction of family, friends, colleagues and strangers to my wearing of the hair style. The results are all inside "Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles.”
The father of two children, he and his wife live in Richmond, Virginia.
