Emma Tarlo

Emma Tarlo is a Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research takes intimate subjects such as dress, the body, and hair and explores how these are entangled in complex global relationships. Her books include Clothing Matters which focuses on the dynamics of dress in colonial and post-colonial India and Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhi which traces how the urban fabric of Delhi was restructured through the displacement and sterilisation of the poor in the 1970s. Her more recent books: Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith (Berg, 2010) and the co-edited volume Islamic Fashion and Anti-fashion: New Perspectives from Europe and North America (co-edited with Annelies Moors, Bloomsbury, 2013) enter the world of contemporary Muslim dress practices, exploring how concerns with global politics and faith are articulated through the development and critique of new forms of Islamic fashion. Drawing on research conducted in India, China, the US, and Europe, she is currently writing a book about the global trade in human hair.