Once upon a time (1976) I accepted a one-year teaching appointment at a university I'd never heard of in a state I had never visited. Which just goes to show you that good things can't always be planned, or even anticipated. I teach courses in a variety of subjects having to do with the meaning of American popular culture. Recurring themes are fashion and consumerism. My research training is in the history of clothing and fashion, and I have published many articles on children's clothing in America. My first book, Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America, which was published by Indiana University Press in 2012. I am now working on book #2, Sex and Unisex: Fashion, Feminism and the Sexual Revolution, which will also be published by Indiana University Press, probably sometime in 2014.

In my off-campus life I enjoy all kinds of music, reading, doing fiber and paper crafts and playing tourist in the Washington-Baltimore area. My husband and I met freshman year in college and were married senior year, in a galaxy far, far away. He used to be a theater technician, but now he builds model rooms with no actors for the local IKEA. (Hooray for regular hours, awesome benefits and not working on Saturday nights.) Our daughter, Maria is an urban homesteader/blogger/fiddler/gamelan player in nearby Mount Ranier. Our son Danny is an American Studies alumnus from UMBC and lives and works in Baltimore. The only "kid" still at home is our emotionally needy beagle, Cunningham. 

Jo Barraclough Paoletti, Associate Professor
American Studies Dept., University of Maryand College Park