Award-Winning Canadian Body Image Emerging Scholar Jill Andrew to Speak on Plus Size Fashion at 2013 Las Vegas NAAFA Convention

LAS VEGAS, July 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- PhD Student Jill Andrew wins prestigious grant for emerging female scholars recognizing her work on body image, fat activism and skin-bleaching in Canada and United States. Link:  Grad student wins Soroptimist Foundation grant for women  http://soroptimistfoundation.ca/grantwinners.html#jill

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130724/PH52127-a )
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130724/PH52127-b )

Jill Andrew is a featured speaker in Las Vegas this week (July 26) at the NAAFA 2013 Annual Convention & Expo http://www.naafa.org/ speaking on Plus Size Fashion.  Her presentation is titled:  "Plus Size" Fashion Blogging: Fat Activism or Fat Consumerism (in Sheep's Clothing) and Shades of Grey in Between."

"I am very thankful to international organizations like Soroptimist and still on cloud 10 about being selected out of some 400-plus reported hopefuls for this distinction. This award sends a strong message to academic institutions and to graduate students," says Andrew. "They support and will recognize our work as we aspire to help create better lives through outstanding research and activism for women and girls." Andrew, who has traveled within Canada, United States and Sweden advocating for body (size, weight, shape, skin colour etc.) acceptance will look forward to a trip to Oxford, United Kingdom later this fall where she will speak on "beauty," colourism and skin-bleaching discourse online.

Within her dissertation, Andrew will explore various topics, including "Fat in the City: Monologues (and narratives) of Corpulent Proportions," which will document fashion/dress/consumer/blogging and blog discourse experiences of some fat women in Canada, and "Bleached in the City: Erasing Darkness," an exploration of the socio-cultural, economic, raced and gendered experience of some black female "bleachers" (those who have bleached their skin or thought about doing so) in Canada in relation to abroad. She will also examine where, how and with whom female "marginalized" bodies construct and negotiate identity and belonging as a strategy to help find and execute their oppositional gazes.

Andrew, who says she identifies as a black feminist and fat activist, is curious as to how some females create and sustain spaces within a society in which, all too often she believes, too much "fat" and too much "black" are either fetishized or produce feelings of fear, disgust and disavowal for many. This and more is explored in Andrew's work.

In addition, Andrew is founder/director of BITE ME! Toronto International Body Image Film & Arts Festival, Curvy Catwalk Fashion Fundraiser, the first of its kind in Toronto, ON Canada founded in 2006, and co-founder of Fat in the City a fashion, news and lifestyle blog. Jill's work also appears in plus fashion magazine DARE Magazine http://www.daremag.ca/ and tonightnewspaper http://www.tonightnewspaper.com among others.

In 2010, she was one of 120 women from across Canada handpicked by the office of Canada's former Governor General Michaëlle Jean to participate in the first ever Governor General Women's Conference, Together for Women's Security.

For more information or interviews contact:

Jill Andrew | Email Toronto, ON CANADA | 416-540-6659

Twitter @JILLSLASTWORD  @BITEMEFILMFEST @FATINTHECITY
Skype BITEMEFILMFEST
Websites www.BiteMeFilmFest.com www.FatinTheCity.com  www.tonightnewspaper.com

Soroptimist Foundation of Canada http://www.soroptimistfoundation.ca/
Soroptimist Foundation International www.soroptimist.org

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SOURCE Jill Andrew