FSAD 6415 - Anthropology of the Fashioned Body

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

D. Green.

In this course, we use anthropology and cultural studies concepts and methods to study the fashioned body as it is represented in popular media and produced in everyday life. Anthropologists have long been concerned with diverse cultural approaches to modifying the body and producing textiles, dress and other forms of material culture. We begin by studying early theoretical interventions and attempts to define the field of fashion, followed by the material culture turn and finally analyze contemporary research about the production, consumption and representation of globalized fashion. In this course we focus on production of identities through dress and the multiple, overlapping influences of age/generation, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, ability, race, religion, and sexuality on visual and material production of identity. Students will have weekly readings (for discussion), complete an ethnographic project and contribute to a collaboratively curated costume exhibition.