(Posted November 7, 2008)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Hairstyles can be hot, or not. Hair can be a hairy cultural issue as well, when such styles as braids, mohawks, perms, cornrows or extensions signal a cultural choice. Two educators from Wilkes University will highlight such tress-ful issues at Juniata College in the workshop "I Hear What Your Hair is Saying" at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 20, in Sill Board Room in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus.

The workshop is led Gina Zanolini Morrison, assistant professor of multicultural education at Wilkes, and Evene Estwick, a professor of intercultural communication at Wilkes. The workshop is part of Juniata's Beyond Tolerance series, which features monthly workshops on diversity each month.

The workshop centers on how such non-verbal signals as hairstyles can be interpreted in several different ways depending on cultural perspectives. Hairstyles and hair-care issues can often be the focus of misunderstandings and mis-communication. Morrison and Estwick will discuss what hair choices communicate to others.

Estwick, who is originally from Barbados, and Morrison, who is from northeastern Pennsylvania, will share their own experiences, from the styling salon to the classroom.

Gina Zanolini Morrison is associate professor of education at Wilkes and teaches courses on research methods, leadership, diversity and societal change. She earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1975 from Kutztown State University. She went on to earn a master's degree in education in 1988 and a doctoral degree in human development in 2006, both from Marywood University.

Evene Estwick is an assistant professor of communication at Wilkes. She earned her doctoral degree in 2005 from Temple University.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.