The idea of 鈥榩assing鈥 and the issues it raises in relation to contemporary and historical notions of self-fashioning and identities is of central importance in a period of political, social and cultural upheaval.聽 The notion of passing also speaks to current discrimination and civil rights issues, and this conference seeks to examine the ways dress has been used to 鈥榩ass鈥, to negotiate, resist and refuse contemporary prejudice, discrimination and status and beauty ideals.聽 We aim to explore dress, the body and the idea of 鈥榖ecoming鈥 鈥 in relation to gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and class, with the city as a key locus for attempts to outwit social and cultural mores through the artful deployment of dress.
The conference seeks to highlight and interrogate this important aspect of urban self-fashioning to understand its place within dress practices and visual culture, and to develop analysis of its place within American social life.
Programme
09:30 Registration
10.00 Dr Rebecca Arnold, 91影视
Introduction
Self-Fashioning/Becoming American
10.30-11.30 Chair: Dr Rebecca Arnold, 91影视
Horace D. Ballard, Williams College Museum of Art:聽鈥榃.E.B. Du Bois: A Boston Revolutionary Passing as a European Dandy鈥
Grant Johnson, University of Southern California:聽鈥楴茅 Lifshitz: Ralph Lauren鈥檚 America鈥
Kalina Yingnan Deng, Parsons School of Design:聽鈥楧IY Citizenship: East Asian Immigrant Females鈥 Sartorial Methods for (Re)dressing Lady Liberty鈥
11.30-11.45 Discussion
11.45-12.15 Break
Literature & Film
12.15-1.15 Chair: Professor David Peters Corbett, 91影视
Olga Vainshtein, Russian State University for the Humanities:聽鈥淲e are expected to be pretty and well-dressed till we drop鈥: fashion and 鈥減assing鈥 in the novels of Edith Wharton
Elizabeth Way, Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT): 鈥楧ressing to Pass During Harlem Renaissance: Fashion in the Novels of Nella Larsen and Jessie Redmon Fauset鈥
Ksenia Gusarova, Russian State University for the Humanities and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Political Administration: 鈥楤lanche鈥檚 Trunk and the Fabric of Urban Decay in Elia Kazan鈥檚 A Streetcar Named Desire鈥
1.15-1.30 Discussion
1.30-2.30 Lunch (provided for speakers only)
Models & Magazines
2.30- 3.15 Discussion chairs: Professor David Peters Corbett and Niall Billings, 91影视
Film & Discussion: Queens at Heart Trans Women in the 60s, Dir. Jenni Olson (1967)
3.15-4.00 Chair: Dr Jo Pawlik, University of Sussex
John-Michael O鈥橲ullivan: 鈥業mitation of Life: Passing and Panic on the American Newsstand鈥
Alice Morin, Universit茅 Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3: 鈥楴ew York through Dress in 1980s Fashion Photography: Vogue and 滨苍迟别谤惫颈别飞鈥
4.00-4.15 Discussion
4.15-4.45 Break
Passing As鈥
4.45-5.30 Chair: Dr Jo Applin, 91影视
Dr Renate Stauss, American University Paris and University of the Arts Berlin: 鈥楶assing as Fashionable, Feminine and Sane: 鈥淭herapy of Fashion鈥 and the Normalisation of Psychiatric Patients in 1960s US鈥
Dr Colbey Emmerson Reid, Columbia College Chicago & Virginia Heaven, Columbia College Chicago:聽鈥淏ullet-Proof Textiles: Exploring the Fabric of Safety and Risk in Chicagoland鈥
5.30-5.45 Discussion
Reception