Now a master’s student at Ohio University studying communication and social change, Doe is asking questions about the lives and livelihoods of the seamstresses, the economics of free-market capitalism, and more.
“I always wondered how the mass importation of the cheap second-hand clothing affected seamstresses.
Drawing on 12 semi-structured interviews in Accra, the capital of Ghana, she argues that background, location, skill and the education of seamstresses all impact the seamstresses’ business and livelihoods.
“The results suggest that there are both positive and negative impacts of the fast fashion second-hand market.
She also has thanks for the mentorship of her thesis committee, Risa Whitson and Edna Wangui from the Geography Department in the College of Arts and Sciences and Saumya Pant in the School of Media Arts and Studies in the Scripps College of Communication.
Wangui has been amazing in inspiring me to think about a project that would be important to the overall climate of gender and environment in Africa, specifically Ghana.
Pant, my program director, always reminds me to think development and to think about the core tenant of CommDev, which is the participatory approach in creating a dialogue for people to share what their problems are and suggest their own solutions to the issues.