Title: “Why the 'Unruly' Woman Masker is Still Relevant: The Case of the Baby Doll of New Orleans”

Bio: Kim Vaz-Deville is associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana, a Professor of Counselor Education, a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. Dr. Vaz-Deville’s area of research is on the use of expressive arts as a response to large group social trauma with attention to women, gender and insurgency.  She is the author of The Baby Dolls: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition, Louisiana State University Press (2013).  Her edited book Contemporary Scholars and Artists Respond to the Baby Dolls of New Orleans is forthcoming in Summer 2018 from University Press of Mississippi. Dr. Vaz-Deville is the secretary of the board of the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in New Orleans, a board member of the New Orleans Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center and a member of the board of One Book One New Orleans.