Aimee Cox facts for kids

Aimee Meredith Cox is an American professor, author, and former professional dancer. She is known for her work in cultural anthropology, which is the study of human cultures and societies. She uses her background in dance to understand and help communities, especially young Black women.

Cox is a professor at both Yale University and Fordham University. She studies important topics like fairness, social justice, and how race and gender affect people's lives.

Her most famous work is the book Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship. This book won several awards, including a Victor Turner Book Prize in 2016. It was inspired by her time working at a center for young women in Detroit. There, she used dance and art to help them share their stories.

Besides her work as a professor, Cox was once a dancer with famous groups like Ailey II and the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She also helps lead groups like the Association of Black Anthropologists.

Early Life and Education

Aimee Cox has said her family always supported her academic goals. She dedicated her book Shapeshifters to her sister, Jennifer. She said her sister encouraged her to write about her own experiences.

College and Dance

Cox went to Vassar College and earned a degree in anthropology in 1994. Dance was a huge part of her college life. She had enough credits to graduate early, but she chose to spend a semester studying at the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH), the first major Black ballet company.

At DTH, a principal dancer named Lowell Smith encouraged her to apply to the famous Ailey School. She was accepted and said her time there taught her that "dance is about spirit, tradition, and culture." She later returned to dance professionally with the Ailey II company.

Graduate Studies

After college, Cox attended the University of Michigan to earn her PhD in cultural anthropology. For her research, she worked at a center in Detroit called Alternatives for Girls. This center provided a safe place for young women who needed support.

For four years, Cox studied how things like race and gender shaped the lives of the young women at the center. She wrote about her findings in her PhD dissertation, which was an ethnography. An ethnography is a type of research where a person studies a community by becoming part of it.

Career and Major Projects

Before becoming a professor, Aimee Cox had a successful career as a professional dancer. She toured with Ailey II, which is part of the world-famous Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Helping Young Women in Detroit

From 2001 to 2004, Cox was the director of Alternatives for Girls, a center in Detroit that helped young women. While working there, she used dance, poetry, and music to help the residents express themselves.

In 2005, she started the BlackLight Project. This project helped the young women at the center use art to tell their personal stories. The project was a success and received a grant from the Kellogg Foundation. Cox's experiences there became the foundation for her award-winning book, Shapeshifters.

Work as a Professor

After finishing her PhD, Cox began teaching at Rutgers University–Newark. In 2009, she brought the BlackLight project to Newark with the help of 15 young female leaders.

In 2011, she became a professor at Fordham University. Later, in 2017, she joined the faculty at Yale University as an associate professor of Anthropology and African American Studies.

Important Written Works

Aimee Cox's writing combines her knowledge of anthropology with her passion for dance. She often studies how performance can tell stories about people's lives.

The Book Shapeshifters

In 2015, Cox published her first book, Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship. The book is an ethnographic study, meaning it is based on her real-life research with a group of young Black women in Detroit.

In the book, Cox explains how these young women navigate difficult social situations. She calls this process "shapeshifting." She describes how they use storytelling, their appearance, and even the way they move their bodies to create their own sense of freedom and identity.

Other Writings

Cox has written many other articles and book chapters. In a project called The Body and the City Project, she studied young Black women in Newark, New Jersey, similar to her work in Detroit. She has also reviewed books about the challenges faced by young women in inner-city communities.

Her work often explores the connection between performance, race, and gender. She uses her writing to share the stories of Black women and to create new ways of understanding their experiences.

Awards and Recognition

Aimee Cox has received many awards for her work.

• Her book Shapeshifters won the Victor Turner Book Prize in Ethnographic Writing in 2016.
• She was named the 2017 Woman of the Year by the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce & EDC.
• She received the Malkiel Scholarship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in 2018.
• In 2021, she won an award for innovation in teaching from Yale College.

Community Involvement

Aimee Cox is part of several important groups and projects. She is a fellow for a project at Columbia University that studies how Black communities have dealt with difficult environmental and social challenges.

She has also been part of Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter. This is a group of artists who use their work to bring attention to issues of racism. In 2019, she was a fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania, where she led an interactive performance.