Jessica L. Harris is a scholar of Modern Italy, Black Europe, Women’s History, African American History, and 20^th century U.S. and the World, with a particular interest in gender and race, their intersection with material culture, and the subsequent effect on group identities. She received her Ph.D. in History (2016), M.A. in Afro-American Studies (2010), and B.A. in History (2007) all from the University of California, Los Angeles.

As Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, Jessica will be working on her project Black in Italy: African Americans in 20^th century Italy which is a transnational cultural history on race and gender relations in Italy and the United States. The project will examine the cultural presence of African American women in 20^th century Italy, in particular in film, television, and fashion.

Jessica’s first book Italian Women’s Experiences with American Consumer Culture, 1945-1975: The Italian Mrs. Consumer is forthcoming with Palgrave Macmillan. The book employs gendered, cultural history, social history, and transnational approaches to examine the spread of American female consumer culture to Italy that was part of the cultural Cold War fought between the U.S. and Soviet Union. In contrast to existing literature on the cultural Cold War, the book focuses on American female consumer culture—beauty products, domestic appliances, and department stores—and its presence in a country with the largest Communist party in Western Europe. Further, it analyzes the culture’s democratic, consumer capitalist messages and how Italian women responded to this new cultural presence in their everyday lives. In this way, the book illustrates how the modern, consuming American woman became a significant figure in the international and domestic cultural and social contests for the hearts and minds of Italian women. Jessica’s articles have been published in Modern Italy and Carte Italiane.