Emma Tarlo is a Professor of Anthropology and Director of Research at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has conducted long term anthropological fieldwork in India and Britain as well as shorter multi-cited fieldwork in China, Myanmar and the USA. She specializes in the anthropology of material culture with reference to dress, fashion, textiles, the body and hair in trans-cultural contexts. Her work engages with issues of colonialism, nationalism, diasporic identities, aesthetics, memory, religious revivalism, stigma, creativity and questions of representation and materiality.

Dan Choi founded REMY NY, an ethical, fair-trade hair extensions company, in 2017. With a mission of bringing more equity and transparency to the hair trade, his social enterprise is now providing life-changing opportunities to impoverished women around the world, as well as raising the standards for a multi-billion dollar industry that has historically suffered from corruption and shady business practices. Predominantly sourcing his hair from Vietnam, Dan is pioneering change for women who are prone to exploitation by paying high and fair wages for women’s hair all while providing work opportunities.

Carmelyn P. Malalis was appointed Chair and Commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights (the Commission) by Mayor Bill de Blasio in November 2014 following more than a decade in private practice as an advocate for employees’ rights in the workplace. Throughout her career, Ms. Malalis has demonstrated a fierce commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion and preventing and prosecuting discrimination and intolerance. Commissioner Malalis earned her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and received a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Yale University.

Ebonee Davis is an actor, storyteller and supermodel who believes in the power of vulnerability and embracing one’s most authentic self. She is not only a champion of representation in fashion and media, but is making her mark in the world by sharing her personal evolution and inspiring powerful change within our society. Ebonee’s TED Talk, entitled, “Black Girl Magic in the Fashion Industry”, became a catalyst for many of the on-going changes for diversity within the fashion industry. Most recently, Ebonee launched her charity, Daughter, which supports scholars across the diaspora who wish to return to Africa and get reconnected.

Lindsey Day is the president, co-founder, and editor-in-chief of CRWN Magazine, the world’s first natural hair magazine. Day, also a management consultant, grew up in California. CRWN Magazine is a natural hair and lifestyle magazine that celebrates women of color.

HAIR CLUB is a collaborative, research-based initiative exploring the multivalent subject of Hair in our wider culture. HAIR CLUB was founded by three graduate students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Suzanne Gold, Kelly Lloyd, and Michal Lynn Shumate.

Raffaele Mollica is a master wig-maker whose flagship hand-crafted wig, now known as the “Ralf,” has been celebrated in publications such as Vogue, The New York Times, and People, among others, and on television on both HBO and PBS. Having emigrated from Sicily in 1956, he attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. He subsequently broke into the fashion scene and became the in-house wig-maker for Vidal Sassoon, Kenneth and then Elizabeth Arden. In 1975 he founded Raffaele Mollica, Inc., a small, family-oriented business dedicated to making hand-crafted custom wigs and hairpieces for both local customers as well as serving a global clientele.

Studio Swine (Super Wide Interdisciplinary New Explorers) is a collective established in 2011 by Azusa Murakami (JP) and Alexander Groves (UK). Their work straddles between the spheres of sculpture, installations and cinema, blending poetry and research into immersive experiences. The studio adopts an unique approach to each work, drawing on the distinctive resources and vernacular aesthetic of its cultural, historic and economic landscape.

Tina Lasisi is a PhD Student in the Jablonski Lab at Penn State University. Tina is interested in the evolution of human phenotypic variation among populations. Her doctoral research will focus on the evolution of human hair variation. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology & Anthropology at the University of Cambridge where she wrote a thesis entitled “Human Hair Diversity: Quantitative Variation in Hair Fibre Shape & Pigmentation”.

Noliwe Rooks, is an author and professor at Cornell University whose work explores race and gender. An interdisciplinary scholar, her work explores how race and gender both impact and are impacted by popular culture, social history and political life in the United States. The author of four books, numerous articles, essays and OpEd’s.

INFRINGE is a platform dedicated to hair culture. Created by Anthony and Pat Mascolo, INFRINGE explores the world of hair across creative disciplines.

Swedish product designer Simon Skinner has created a collection of afro hair combs that explore the effect of migration on Swedish identity. Called Afropicks, the collection of eight different combs was on show as part of the Hemma Gone Wild exhibition by Swedish Design Moves during this year’s Milan design week.