Fall 2016
I’m teaching our graduate student Methods course. Should be exciting! More information to come.
Spring 2016
Fashion and Identity in the Eighteenth Century (Undergrad)
This course explores the relationship between fashion (broadly defined) and identity in eighteenth-century France and England. We will examine the role of dress, hair, make-up, and accessories in eighteenth-century life, as part and parcel of the social practices of the period. This period saw a shift from clothing as external signs of social position towards a modern emphasis on clothing as part of a self-constructed identity that corresponded to larger political, social, and economic changes. We will consider how conditions of manufacture and commodification of clothing, make-up, and fashionable things engaged with ideologies of class and how fashion and shopping became gendered over the course of the century. Finally, we will discuss the lasting influence of eighteenth-century fashion by studying its appropriation in the nineteenth century and by contemporary designers and pop culture.