Topics in Anthropology (290-0-2)
Topic
Fashion Matters
Instructors
Paola Zamperini
847/467-4593
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge Hall, Office 4-431
Office Hours: Varies quarter to quarter, please check with instructor.
Meeting Info
University Hall 122: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
This course will focus on the anthropological, cultural, historical, and social development of F/fashion, clothing, textiles, and their consumption in East Asia., past and present. Using a variety of sources, from fiction to art, from bodily modification to textile production, from legal codes to advertisements, we will study both actual garments created and worn throughout history, as well as the ways in which they inform identity markers such as class, ethnicity, nationality, and gender. Among the topics we will analyze in this sense will be hairstyles, foot-binding, plastic surgery, and, in a deeper sense, bodily practices that inform most fashion-related discourses in East Asia. We will also think through the issue of fashion design, production, and consumption as an often-contested site of modernity, especially in relationship to the issue of globalization and world-market. Thus, we will also include a discussion of international fashion designers, along with analysis of phenomena such as sweatshops.
Learning Objectives
Acquisition of knowledge about fashion studies, fashion theory, East Asian clothing and fashion cultures and histories. This will entail exposure to both visual and literary primary sources (in English, and for those students able to, in the appropriate East Asian language), as well as to related secondary sources. -Development of methodological skills in studying, reading, and analyzing the primary and secondary sources related to the themes of the course. -Growth as independent researchers in the field of Anthropology of fashion, East Asian Studies, Fashion Studies, Gender Studies, and Asian humanities. -Growth as independent academic thinkers and writers.
Teaching Method
Student-centered discussion with the occasional lecture
Evaluation Method
The final grade will be based on the following criteria: -Active class participation (discussion, preparation, short assignments); 30% -Assignments (clothing journal, writing statements, short papers, et al.) ; 35% -Final Project
Class Materials (Required)
Provided in Canvas.
Class Attributes
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area