College students decorating their mortarboards for graduation is an evolving tradition, providing public performances of the personal. Sheila Bock's book, Claiming Spaces, examines the creative, playful, and powerful ways graduates use their caps to fashion their personal engagement with notions of self, community, education, and the unknown future.

Dr. Bock is an Associate Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her academic training is in Folklore Studies, an interdisciplinary field that integrates methods from the humanities and the social sciences to examine vernacular beliefs and practices, the dynamics of tradition, and the aesthetics of daily life.