From ancient origins to today’s global industrial paradigm, the ways we produce, use, value and give meaning to textiles have had and still have profound agency in determining how we lived and live now. In this course, through readings and analysis, we investigate contexts, or times and places, to gain orientations, insights, and appreciation of textiles in the realms of technology, economics and social, political, and gender structures, as well as aesthetics
The course runs online in Canvas from 15 January to 2 June, 2023. Please note this course has no required meetings. I will schedule an optional meeting to present my research about a handloom-weaving social-enterprise in rural India.
The course flows through four modules on large themes, for example, Power and Society, and Globalized Industrialism. There will be individual reading and writing assignments, and a group assignment on a shared multi-media online whiteboard. Groups (2 – 3 people) will meet according to their needs.
The required book is The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Klair (2019). You will likely have to buy this as a paper book, as there does not seem to be an electronic version. (The same book has been published with various covers.) It is also available in a lively audio version. Sets of readings and sources that correspond with each module will be posted in Canvas. Students, with my guidance, will also be responsible for finding supplemental sources.
Looking forward to the semester!
Best,
David
