Adjunct Professor Bernadette Stockwell ’19 wore her scholarship on her sleeve
03/01/2025
By Ed Brennen
The outfit that Bernadette Stockwell ’19 wore when defending her dissertation for a Ph.D. in literacy studies from the School of Education said a lot about her. Literally.
The outside of her velour blazer, which she made herself, featured a collage print of black and white family photos and newspaper clippings representing her past. The inside was lined with colorful graphics and key findings from her dissertation, “The Journey of Hero Writers: A Study of Creative Writing Practices.”
Stockwell also had excerpts of her dissertation printed (in a 12-point Times New Roman font) on fabric that she used to make her blouse. Colorful handmade earrings and loud eyeglasses put exclamation points on the ensemble.
“If you can’t impress them with what you’re saying, distract them and wow them with what you’re wearing,” jokes Stockwell, a senior adjunct professor of English at UML since 2007.
A self-taught seamstress, Stockwell has been making her own clothes since she was an English major at UMass Amherst in the late 1970s—partly as a pastime, but also to save money.
“I could make myself a turtleneck in about half an hour for $3,” says Stockwell, who estimates that 75% of her wardrobe is homemade. The rest comes from the Salvation Army.
Stockwell describes her personal style as “artsy professor.” She eschews labels and blue jeans, owns a half dozen pairs of eyeglasses and loves to watch “Project Runway” to see how young designers “push the envelope while still being practical.” She also enjoys seeing how fashion trends come and go for students: baggy jeans, hoodies, ripped knees, athleisure wear—it’s ever-evolving.
“They just want to fit in. They want to be accepted and demonstrate that they’re part of the club, too,” says Stockwell, who took a course on the history of costume in college. “Many students wear the costume of students, and many faculty wear the costume of a professor. And I know that it matters, because if I wore a wedding gown into the classroom, students would notice.”
Still, Stockwell admires those who are willing to make a fashion statement. Author of a Psychology Today blog, she wrote a post in 2022 about how what we wear makes us feel. She recalled seeing 500 River Hawk Scholars Academy students in an auditorium, almost all of them in matching blue T-shirts, and one young man in “wide, black leather cuffs studded with metal spikes… a baggy black T-shirt with the logo of some metal band and long black pants, also baggy.”
“Of all the kids in the room that day, he was the one I wanted to get to know,” Stockwell wrote. “He was already making a statement to the world.”