Marie Grace Brown
Ph.D. Student
brownma@sas.upenn.edu
Education
A.B., Bryn Mawr College (2004)
Research Interests
Women’s activism in Sudan and the Middle East, nationalism, gendered identity formation, body culture and dress
Fields
Modern Middle East, Cultural History of the Nile Valley, Gender
COMMITTEE
Proposed Dissertation
Dressing Sudan: Authenticity, Modernity, and Women's Activism, 1900-1964
Personal Statement
After six months abroad carrying out archival research in Sudan, Egypt, and England, Marie Grace Brown has returned to Philadelphia to write her dissertation. Her work, tentatively titled, "Dressing Sudan: Authenticity, Modernity, and Women's Activism, 1900-1964," explores the ways in which northern Sudanese women promoted a national costume during the independence movement of the 1950s and in doing so established themselves as active crafters of a national identity. Since coming to Penn, Marie has been interested in studies of nationalism, women's movements, and the iconography of "nation as woman". More recently, her work has led her to argue for an increased focus on non-textual sites of political expression (bodies, clothing, etc). On behalf of the Middle East Center at Penn, Marie has lectured on Middle Eastern history and popular culture to area school and community groups. Her work has also been featured in the School of Arts and Sciences online magazine, Frontiers.
She expects to defend her dissertation in Spring, 2012
