NOTE: Course description here is for illustrative purposes only; it may differ slightly from the current academic schedule. Use WebAdvisor as your primary source for all course information when registering for classes.
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TEXTL360 MH: Crossing the Continent This course investigates the utilitarian, aesthetic, religious, economic, and political significance of both ancient and modern textile traditions of the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania. Because textiles are pliable and portable, they have been bartered for thousands of years. Therefore, this curriculum specifically addresses how these art forms reflect the history of conquest, colonization, and cultural exchange along the Silk Road and later sea routes navigated by European trading companies. Through slide lectures, readings, discussions, research, and written assignments, students investigate a range of issues around some of the most sophisticated textile traditions in the world including Central Asian silk ikats, Kashmiri woven shawls traded to Europe, Indian textiles and nationalist movements, Chinese silk used as a signifiers of gender and social status, Japanese surface design of the rising merchant classes, the gendered meaning of Indonesian indigo dyeing, and the development of hybrid Hawaiian quilting traditions. |
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