By Dan Nonte, University Relations
Dr. Gwendolyn S. O'Neal
UNCG’s Department of Consumer, Apparel and Retail Studies has a new chair: Dr. Gwendolyn S. O’Neal.
The Franklin County native has been a professor and department head at Kansas State University for the past six years, but she is no stranger to Greensboro.
She earned her bachelor’s at Bennett College and her master’s in textiles and clothing at UNCG. After receiving her doctorate from Ohio State University, she returned to Greensboro to teach at Bennett.
The president of the International Textiles and Apparel Association, she also has held faculty appointments at Alabama A&M University and Ohio State.
Her research involves the meaning assigned to clothes, and that meaning’s effect on behavior. More specifically, she has studied clothing-related violence, consumers’ perception of apparel quality and the African-American aesthetic of dress.
“Interim Chair Nancy Nelson Hodges did a wonderful job, so I have the advantage of that momentum,” O’Neal said. “The university, the community and the state will be hearing great things from this department.”
