Conference Report: ReDressing the Narrative, Week Two

Following up with the second post in my two-part report on the e-conference for costume history pedagogy, ReDressing the Narrative.

Maharani Bahurani Devi Rana of Nepal, 1908

Photo by Dirgha Man Chitrakar

On Thursday afternoon (May 28) between the official conference weekends, I hosted my own Zoom discussion, "Period Pattternmaking Paradigm Shift," which looked at other lenses through which we might approach teaching period patternmaking beyond the current "chronology of Western fashion" structure that has dominated such classes from their beginnings. Because of scheduling difficulties in the midst of pandemic, not everyone who wanted to attend was able to, so I took copious notes.

You can read the meeting minutes/discussion notes as well as find a list of books recommended during the session in this Google Doc.

You can access my Prezi from our discussion here, if you'd like to use it as a guide to facilitate a similar discussion with colleagues.

You can also scroll through this Pinterest board of inspiration images.

A slide from Deepsikha Chatterjee's lecture citing her recent publications which I'd like to track down and read.

On the third"official" day of the conference (May 30), I attended two Zoom lectures, "My Bookshelf is Dated" by Christianne Myers (challenging scholars to keep up to date on recently published academic work in their field rather than relying on the books they collected/inherited/thrifted in graduate school) and Deepsikha Chatterjee's "How to Decolonize Your Syllabus."

Chatterjee's lecture was particularly interesting because she addressed how, as an Indian-born scholar who came to the US for her own graduate study, she first had to "decolonize herself," as she realized that her own education in India came from a system developed under colonial rule. Then she discussed ways in which costume history professors could step outside the colonial/imperial/"Western" paradigm, including teaching thematically instead of chronologically, examining perspectives of power, including consideration of the Global South, and addressing the historical hegemony of binary gender.

For various personal reasons, I was unable to attend the breakout discussion group that third day (mine would have been about strategies for teaching studio/construction classes remotely).

A slide from Chloe Chapin's welcome-back lecture, on simple to complex teaching/learning goals.

I did make it to the sessions on May 31, the final day of the conference. The organizers all spoke about how they felt approaching the end of this unprecedented "meeting of the minds" in our field, and then they split us out into 5-person discussion groups randomly generated by the Zoom app. My group talked about various things, including how we might engage meaningfully in interdisciplinary studies, how overwhelmed we felt by all kinds of mind-blowing revelations/propositions, and also we acknowledged how stressed and scared we all were for the future of theatrical costume in a post-COVID world. We brainstormed about other fields which could use our expertise (fashion, video games, TV/film) and we shared our schools' plans (or lack thereof) for the fall.

My slide contribution, showing the same basic elements of silhouette, drastically different choices in textiles/trimmings, across three decades of the 18th century at various locations around the world (L to R: England, Mexico, Russia).

The conference concluded with the group creation of a slide show, with everyone contributing a single slide summing up something about their conference experience. As soon as that slide show is distributed to participants, I'll share a link on this blog.

Before I conclude, I'd like to address how--by and large--this was one of the more accessible conferences i've attended. Since it was held online, attendees with mobility issues didn't have to stress about whether they would have problems with ramps, door opening buttons, accessible restrooms. The lectures I attended all included captioning, and participants were encouraged to include pronouns in their Zoom name if so inclined.

My one disappointment concerned accessibility challenges in some of the slide shows. I have poor vision and often the contrast between the text and the background was not high enough for me to read the notes on the slides--grey text on a white screen is tough, especially at 11pt. I found the white text on a dark background in Deepsikha Chatterjee's lecture the most discernable. But, this is a minor quibble.

All in all, it was a shaka buku of a conference. Although i don't personally teach our costume history or period patternmaking classes, the experience of attending is something I'll not soon forget, and I intend to "report back" to my colleagues at the university who do teach relevant courses.