Senior Honors Thesis student Zingha Foma has been chosen as the first Parker-Tiampo Family Scholar. The scholarship will support Foma’s research on her senior honors thesis, “The Origin of Dutch African Prints: An Investigation into the history of the Dutch owned African textile company, Vlisco.” The project emerged from her discovery that today Vlisco, a European company, is the number one producer of what are known as African textiles. She is investigating the origins of Vlisco in West Africa, how they design textiles for the African market, and how they succeeded in becoming the the top producers of African prints.
The Parker-Tiampo Family Scholars Fund is an endowment established to honor the strong relationship between Noah Parker ’16 and his family and UC Santa Barbara, especially the Department of History.