Noliwe Rooks is the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Africana Studies, and the chair of Africana Studies at Brown University. Her work explores how race and gender both impact and are impacted by popular culture, social history, and political life in the United States. She studies the cultural and racial implications of beauty, fashion, and adornment; race, capitalism and education, and the urban politics of food and cannabis production. Rooks has received research funding from the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson School among others. She is the author of five books, and a regular contributor to outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, TIME, and NPR.