Carolyn Cooper is a professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.  She is the author of Sound Clash:  Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large (2004); and Noises in the Blood:  Orality, Gender and the 'Vulgar' Body of Jamaica Popular Culture (1993).  Her essay “Caribbean Fashion Week: Remodeling Beauty in ‘Out of Many One’ Jamaica” was published in the journal Fashion Theory in July 2010.  Professor Cooper initiated the establishment of the Reggae Studies Unit  at UWI, Mona and provided leadership for this innovative enterprise for more than a decade. A former director of the Institute of Caribbean Studies at UWI, Mona, Professor Cooper chaired the organising committee of the Institute's 2008 'Global Reggae Conference'.  An outspoken public intellectual, Professor Cooper writes a weekly column for the Jamaica Gleaner on a wide range of issues:  gender, popular culture, politics, environmental activism, language rights, cultural identity and fashion.