This seminar provides a critical review of definitions of fashion as well as of the theoretical concepts and debates that have shaped the development of fashion, and of fashion studies as a scholarly field. Responding to the definition of fashion in Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture as “the cultural construction of the embodied identity,” the course will specifically address discourses on the relationship of fashion, body and identity, problematized by the complex variables such as gender, class, ethnicity, trans/nationality. In studying key issues, texts and paradigm shifts in the discourse of fashion studies, students will become familiar with scholars who have influenced the field, such as Elizabeth Wilson, Susan Kaiser, Valerie Steele, Caroline Evans, Agnes Rocamora, Tanisha Ford, Carol Tulloch as well as with debates in disciplines that have informed the field, including cultural studies, gender studies, anthropology and sociology. Beyond critical class discussion and close readings of texts students will work on a research paper exploring some of the "key concepts" on a more in-depth level, learning how to utilize and synthesize scholarly perspectives in the field of fashion studies.

This seminar provides a critical review of definitions of fashion as well as of the theoretical concepts and debates that have shaped the development of fashion, and of fashion studies as a scholarly field. Responding to the definition of fashion in Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture as “the cultural construction of the embodied identity,” the course will specifically address discourses on the relationship of fashion, body and identity, problematized by the complex variables such as gender, class, ethnicity, trans/nationality. In studying key issues, texts and paradigm shifts in the discourse of fashion studies, students will become familiar with scholars who have influenced the field, such as Elizabeth Wilson, Susan Kaiser, Valerie Steele, Caroline Evans, Agnes Rocamora, Tanisha Ford, Carol Tulloch as well as with debates in disciplines that have informed the field, including cultural studies, gender studies, anthropology and sociology. Beyond critical class discussion and close readings of texts students will work on a research paper exploring some of the "key concepts" on a more in-depth level, learning how to utilize and synthesize scholarly perspectives in the field of fashion studies.