Dress the history of fashion is a production of iHeartRadio.

Over 7 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common.

Every day, we all get dressed.

Welcome to Dress the history of fashion, a podcast where we explore the who but when of why we wear.

We are fashion historians and your hosts, April Callahan.

And Cassidy Zachary.

Well today, trust listeners, we are very pleased to welcome fashion educator, researcher and activist Dr. Ben Barry to the show.

Barry is currently the associate professor of equity diversity and inclusion at the Ryerson School of Fashion in Toronto.

Ontario and founding director of the Center for Fashion Diversity and Social Change at the same university.

But starting July 1st, Barry will bring his expertise to the United States when he begins his new job as the Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design in New York City.

And as we will learn in today's interview, Barry has been challenging the exclusionary Eurocentric and decidedly narrow definition of fashion since he was just 14 years old Cass.

I know it's pretty epic.

And he has really dedicated his life and career to expanding and redefining fashion beyond its narrow exclusionary body and gender ideals and norms.

And his work celebrates bodies of all shapes and sizes, centering the experiences of disabled fat transqueer and gender nonconforming individuals.

So we are super, super excited for him to join us today on Dress to share his incredible work with you.

So Ben from one New Yorker to a soon to be New Yorker, welcome to dress. And I've already I think cast just so you know I think our dogs are already friends on Instagram.

Then it is such a pleasure to have you here with us today. I am a huge admirer of your work and your activism for listeners who might not know you though. Will you please introduce yourself.

First, it's mutual as such an average listener and fan of the podcast. I'm very excited to be on it today and to be a guest. So thank you for the invitation.

So my name is Ben Barry and I'm currently an associate professor of equity diversity and inclusion and share of school of fashion at Ryerson University in Toronto.

And as of July 2021, I'll be dean of fashion Parsons in New York. Very exciting. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm a fashion educator researcher and I like to think activists so much of my work both in all of these capacities are really driven by transforming fashion broadly speaking to center equity and justice and ultimately freedom and liberation.

Yeah, and I agree I absolutely think you are an activist. I am such an admirer of how you bring that into your scholarship. I think as a historian, I can I almost wonder how I can do that myself and bringing you know kind of these historical moments into the present day and use them to affect change and you do that in a really incredible and effective way.

And we're going to talk all about it today in researching your work. I've heard you mentioned multiple times that you love the stories that clothing can tell and we of course on dress completely agree with you.

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