On behalf of the students in HIST/ASRC 2452, I want to express our deeply felt appreciation to Virginia Cole, our research and copyright guru, and Caitlyn Park our web-designer extraordinaire.

We are forever grateful for the generous financial and practical support from:

Denise Greene, Associate Professor, Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design; director, Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection and the main engine behind the “Decolonizing Fashion Studies” initiative; and Stephen Vider, Assistant Professor in the History Department and director of the Public History Initiative at Cornell.

They made it possible for Caitlyn to work with us on this exhibit and supported Abiola Onabule’s participation in the Fashion and Social Justice speaker series where we were treated to an inspiring lecture and meditation on her design process.

Finally, I would like to thank the students in the seminar who hung on for this crazy journey we call learning. I hope you will continue to share your knowledge.

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York State, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

HIST/ASRC: 2452 Dress Cloth and Identity

This course uses a multi-disciplinary approach to examine the importance of textiles in African social and economic history. It combines art history, anthropology, social and economic history to explore the role of textiles in marking status, gender, political authority and ethnicity. In addition, we examine the production and distribution of indigenous cloth and the consequences of colonial rule on African textile industries. Our analysis also considers the principles of African dress and clothing that shaped the African diaspora in the Americas as well as the more recent popularity and use of African fabrics and dress in the United States.

Faculty advisor: Professor Judith Byfield

Exhibit website: Caitlyn Park

Research and FERPA assistance: Virginia Cole, Archaeology, Classics, History, & Medieval Studies Librarian