Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons^™

Soft Korsi: An Embodied Spatial Interior System For Communal Warmth, Faezeh Panahandeh

Graduate Final Projects

ABSTRACT

Soft Korsi: An Embodied Spatial Interior System for Communal Warmth reconceptualizes the historic Iranian Korsi as an innovative textile-based interior system. Traditionally, the Korsi functioned not only as a heating device but also as a spatial, material, cultural, and embodied system, which brought people together around a shared warm focal point. The integration of a heat source, textile coverings, floor seating arrangements, closeness of bodies, and domestic traditions related to warmth made possible a collective experience, rather than an individual or environmental one.

This design project seeks to address the disappearance of the Korsi from contemporary domestic environments as …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

Within The Archive: Jewelry And The Poetics Of Historical Trace, Fusheng Zhong

Masters Theses

Jewelry is a poetic translator, through which my intense and complex engagement with history is materialized. By reinterpreting the classical Chinese poem Bring the Wine(Li Bai,752) through paper-based materials, I translate poetry infused with personal traces and a distinct stance into wearable objects that embody the weight of history.

Through jewelry, an art form carried in close proximity to the body, I engage with history by staging acts of document visualization, transforming poems and archival fragments into visual and tactile records.  I suggest that in conditions of informational overload, individuals may gravitate toward reductive positions in order to avoid being …

Tracings, Masie Sophia Love

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, the artist wonders what it means to remember a time and place that she has not experienced- what would this look like visualized in a painting? Love studies the histories and similarities between cartography and quilting using the two as a kind of channel to understand, record, and remember land. She explores inherited memory and the clues left behind in the form of quilts made by ancestors to create abstracted landscapes and maps of Tennessee where they lived for generations.

Public Art And Military Technology At The Mexico-U.S. Border: Disrupting Boundaries On Battlegrounds, Anna Luise Kaunert

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how contemporary artists Rubén Ortiz Torres, Chico MacMurtrie, rafa esparza, and Cassils transformed military technologies into powerful artworks that interrogate the Mexico-U.S. border as a battlefield. Together, their works illuminate militarization and surveillance technologies at the border and the violent enforcement of U.S. immigration policy.

Belle Époque French Fashion: Understanding French Clothing Labels In Historical American Media, Meg E. Smith

Scholars Week

A period of French prosperity know as the Belle Epoque followed the Franco-Prussain War from 1871-1914. Within this time, Parisian Fashion would blossom and flourish with couturiers, fashion designers, rising in fame and influence within textile and clothing markets. Credit to this prosperity can be given to the second industrial revolution, the end of a long depression, and a dominating industry of luxury market goods production in tandem with a sharp increase in foreign trade. Foreign media, such as American newspapers, would display the array of reactions to the success of Parisian styles. Retail progression and the commercialization of leisure …

Sam Boakye, Mark Naison, Anthony Abd-Al Shafi Rosado

Oral Histories

At the end of the interview, Boakye explains what he wants for Kwasi Paul in the future, both in the Bronx and in the fashion industry. For the Bronx, he wants it to represent Ghanaian fashion, something Ghanaians in the Bronx can be proud of. He wants the Bronx to be seen as something better, not a “dirty” borough, as stereotypes would have it. For fashion, he wants to be another lens of living with in-between identities, for everyone who falls into these categories of multiple identities, especially for people in New York City.

He encapsulates the Bronx as “The …

Ideas Y Materialidades Que Viajan. Las Cabezas Como Contenedoras De Poder En Las Sociedades Malagana, Nazca Y Huari, Catalina Simmonds Caldas, Sonia Blanco, Marisa Sánchez David

Actas seleccionadas del SIMPOSIO ARTE 4.2: Migraciones en la imagen prehispánica: transitando territorios del pasado al presente. 58º Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2025.

Un cuenco en cerámica perteneciente a la sociedad Malagana (800 a. C. – 600 d. C.), – Suroccidente de Colombia – y cuya descripción es el de ser un contenedor con cabezas antropomorfas circundantes, adheridas a su contorno, quizá esté vinculado a los aspectos conceptuales e ideológicos que encarna en las sociedades Nazca (s. I - VII d. C.) y Nazca-Huari (500 – 700 d. C.) el culto a las cabezas-trofeo; de ser así, se puede presuponer en estas sociedades distintas, un uso ritual asociado al concepto de la cabeza como materialización de formas de poder. Respecto a esta noción …

Tailoring Black Style And Its Powerful Pieces: From West Africa To The U.S. West Coast And Everything In-Between, Gabriel Capellan

Occasional Essays

Introduction:

On September 19, 2025, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum (MET) with some of the Bronx African American History Project team. The people in attendance were Graduate Assistant, Anthony Rosado, and Undergraduate Assistants, Serena Velasquez and Emma Garr, wonderful people, I tell you. After the tour, we ended up at the American art exhibit and had podcast conversations about history for what felt like both hours and very brief minutes... We went to the MET to see a particular piece that was in the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibit curated by Barnard professor, Monica L. Miller …

Dónde Están: Searching For Desaparecidos Of The Argentine Dirty War, Paula Fleischer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project is a data physicalization textile representing the 30,000 'desaparecidos' from the Argentine Dirty War of late 1970s. The large quilt visualizes the official count of 9,000 missing persons in the shape of a headscarf worn by their mothers and grandmothers, while the overall dimensions of the quilt acknowledges 30,000 missing persons. The quilt and accompanying missing persons posters encourage the viewer to interact with the data, however the observed reluctance to engage influenced the direction of this discussion about the hegemonic disinclination to get involved when authority figures 'disappear' fellow residents of our communities.

Presence Of The Past: The Translation Of Traditional Culture Into Contemporary Form Among The Igbo Peoples Of Southeastern Nigeria, Nelson Agalaba

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture serves as the physical embodiment of a group’s cultural values, history, and social dynamics- or identity. The arrival of European colonialism and modernism brought about a paradigm shift, prioritizing a universal European aesthetic and “international style”, displacing indigenous architectural traditions and severing the deep connections between culture and the natural and built environments. The global south has experienced the brunt of this process, especially the African continent. For example, the Igbo peoples of southeastern Nigeria have lost nearly all examples of their building traditions and have been in a constant struggle to create an architecture that captures their rich …

Recollections Of A Tejana Life, Carolina Yáñez

Art Theses and Dissertations

This thesis encompasses the life of a young woman navigating life in Texas through various political and social barriers. My interdisciplinary practice analyzes the historical context of Mexicans in Texas from its Revolutionary period into current injustices. Through fiber, printmaking, and photography I create a visual diary to illustrate what the political has made personal. These works display the beauty of Tejano culture, but also the power struggles that threaten communities I care for, as well as my own existence that persists against far-right wing agendas.

Current politics and government leadership in Texas have inspired me to make artwork calling …

The Curious Case Of Japanese Denim, Aaron Francis Ward

Japanese Society and Culture

From its humble beginnings as wholly utilitarian workwear in the 19^th century, to its modern rise to high-fashion, the ubiquity of denim, particularly in the form of jeans, has had a fascinating journey in its little-over-150-year history (Beazley, 2015). Of note has been the recent rise in popularity of Japanese denim. Since the end of the Second World War, Japan seems to have had an insatiable demand for Americana (Marx, 2023). Yet, if considered in the sociohistorical context of Japanese-American relations, this ought to be highly improbable. The current paper examines the sociological nature of Japanese denim from semiotic …

Under The Veil: Women's Head Coverings In Tudor England, Savannah Toth

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis seeks to discover and analyze the agency and meaning of the role of women’s head coverings and veils within the context of Tudor Christianity, society, and the fashion world of English culture. By observing the usage of the veil through various lenses, this thesis examines the nuance of the veil as an object and actor in Tudor society that enables yet prohibits personal choice for women. This research uses various sources such as Tudor paintings and portraits, surviving pieces of garments, and written accounts to paint a picture of the impact and significance the veil had in every …

The Creative Front, Aleksandr O. Barrett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract

In this paper, I will discuss my thesis exhibition, The Creative Front, focusing on my materials, content, and context as they relate to each piece or body of work. This exhibition is the culmination of my work, which centers on my experience with the Russo-Ukrainian war. My work can be interpreted metaphorically, poetically, and directly through sculpture, installation, sound, and film. I am portraying very human stories and experiences from a full-scale war raging in Europe. My work is immersive, placing the viewer in an atmosphere of war, and conveying a sense of urgency and compassion for those who …

Guanacos De Corazón, Ana Marcela Sinnett

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores the intersections of indigeneity, mestizaje, and decolonial aesthetics through a mixed-media art practice rooted in Salvadoran history and identity. Drawing on ancestral traditions such as indigo dyeing and backstrap weaving, Guanacos de Corazón investigates how materiality, folklore, and handcraft function as forms of visual resistance, meaning art that disrupts dominant narratives, critiques systems of power, and reclaims erased cultural memory.

Through formal analysis, historical context, and interviews with Salvadoran artists, this thesis challenges ideas of mestizaje that promote cultural and ethnic superiority and contribute to the erasure of ancestral beliefs.

How do we rescue ancestral traditions that …

Transatlantic Connections: Reconsidering The Outcomes Of The Arts And Crafts Movement Through The Women's Experience, Britain And The United States, 1860-1920, Tiffany B. Beasley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

The British Arts and Crafts movement (1860-1914) was a call for the return to artisan craftsmanship as a response to mass-production driven by the Industrial Revolution (1760-1830). Historically, the movement has been viewed as a socialist concept developed by men. However, in 1979, a feminist intervention in women's history challenged this masculinist perspective. As the movement spread to the United States (1870-1920), first to New England and then to the South in New Orleans, it also expanded into concepts that moved beyond craftsmanship and into women's issues, such as education, suffrage, and professional work opportunities. It is now evident that …

Threading With Hair // Intertwined Stories, Cloris Ding

Masters Theses

“Threading with Hair // Intertwined Stories” is a poignant exploration that navigates the nuanced landscape of women's growth and identity recognition amidst biased societal influences, tracing the trajectory from the artist’s mother's generation to her own. Through a deeply personal lens, the thesis transcends individual narratives to articulate some shared female experiences. Employing reflective works in the form of jewelry, objects and writings, the study delves into female-centric topics, including the fluidity of identity, the transformative journey through various life stages, and the profound impact of societal expectations and family heritage. At the heart of this exploration is the metaphorical …

The Mounted Warrior: An Investigation Into An Unpublished Coptic Textile Featuring Equestrian Imagery, Elizabeth Hines

University Honors Theses

The warrior on horseback visual motif has existed for millenia. Such equestrian imagery was widely distributed in the visual arts and material culture, including that of textiles. This scholarly exploration centers on an unpublished Coptic Egyptian textile fragment portraying a warrior atop a horse in motion, presenting an analysis of its symbolic significance and potential cultural functions. Through an intricate examination of the artifact and comparative study with contemporaneous first millennium CE eastern Mediterranean material culture, this extraordinary equestrian motif and its implications for understanding ancient visual narratives is realized. By situating the textile fragment within its historical and cultural …

Queerform/Ing, Matthew Solon-Lee Weimer

Art Theses and Dissertations

My artwork is situated within and around vessels and the Queer Homoerotic World and explores sexuality as a Demisexual within them. This is accomplished through the two processes of my creation, Minivague and Queerform/ing: balancing sexual tension and explicit expression, while subverting traditional norms and stereotypes with queerness to distance oneself from stereotypical Gay Art. Altering/emphasizing makes the artwork more romantic, lighter, whimsical, softer, and tender than the figure/s and the situations actually are. The process is also emphasizing what one sees or wants to be seen. The Pink Boy becomes a celebration of intimacy of any form. I discuss …

Ix Jornadas Internacionales De Textiles Precolombinos Y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference On Pre-Columbian And Amerindian Textiles [Volumen Completo / Complete Volume]

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

Comité Científico – Scientific Committee : Lena Bjerregaard, Arabel Fernández, Carolina Orsini, Ann Peters, Victòria Solanilla / Secretaría Científica – Scientific Secretary : Federica Villa

Milan, 19-22 octubre de 2022: Textiles arqueológicos de los Andes centrales – Archaeological textiles from the Central Andes / Textiles arqueológicos de los Andes sur - Archaeological textiles from the Southern Andes / Iconografía y simbolismo - Iconography and Symbolism / Estudios de colecciones - Collection Studies/ Conservación – Conservation / Textiles etnográficos - Ethnographic Textiles

Marina Pugliese / Carolina Orsini / Federica Villa / Daniela Biermann / Amy Oakland / Lizbeth Pariona, Carlos Rengifo …

The Authors

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Short professional biographies of the Contributors: Dimitra Andrianou, Giacomo Bardelli, Magali An Berthon, Tina Boloti, Cecilie Brøns, Ana Cabrera-Lafuente, Francesca Coletti, Roxana Coman, Catarina Costeira, Cristina Cumbo, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Klara Dankova, Anna Maria Desiderio, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Arianna Esposito, Astrid Fendt, Nade Genevska Brachikj, Francisco B. Gomes, Judith Goris, Audrey Gouy, Karina Grömer, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Mary Harlow, Susanna Harris, Sophia Larissa Hayda, Angela Huang, Floor Huisman, Alina Iancu, Zofia Kaczmarek, Marisa Kerbizi, Meghan Korten, Tetiana Krupa, Karolina Anna Kulpa, Lena Larsson Lovén, Ronja Lau, Yuliia Lazorenko, Susanne Lervad, Petra Linscheid, Christina Margariti, Maria João Melo, Elena Miramontes Seijas, Leyre Morgado-Roncal, …

The Euroweb Textile And Clothing Terminology Network And The Digital Atlas Of European Textile Heritage: Some Reflections And Results, Louise Quillien, Alina Iancu, Meghan Korten, Susanne Lervad, Joana Sequeira, Catarina Costeira

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

One of the research areas of the EuroWeb project during the four years of the COST Action (November 2020 – October 2024) is the comparative study of textile and clothing terminologies in European languages across time. Inside the EuroWeb network, the research group on Textile and clothing terminologies has three topics of particular interest: 1. the specificities of these terminologies, and the strategies for naming textiles and garments; 2. the impact of European geography on textile and clothing terminologies, especially visible through textile terms formed after a toponym or through the circulation of loanwords; 3. the influence of textile and …

Exploring Dress, Gender, And Bodily Capital Through Pre- And Protohistoric Funerary Contexts: Case Studies From Southwestern Europe, Francisco B. Gomes, Catarina Costeira, Anna Maria Desiderio, Arianna Esposito, Giacomo Bardelli

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

While uneven in their scope and reach, studies of dress and dress complements (fibulae, belt buckles, buttons, etc.) have a significant tradition within the broader study of the pre- and protohistory of Mediterranean Europe. Many of these studies, however, have had a strong focus on the typology of the dress complements and ornaments themselves, either as chronological indicators, ethnic markers, or both. In more recent years, however, a shift in research agendas has ushered in the introduction of new perspectives and new ways of thinking about dress and bodily adornment.

This contribution explores one such perspective in particular — namely, …

Displaying And Experiencing Dress Identities In Museums: Case Studies From The Etruscan Period To Modern Times, Karina Grömer, Astrid Fendt, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Anna Zimmermann, Kayleigh Saunderson, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Francisco B. Gomes

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Dress, clothes, and accessories receive and give meaning through their nearness to the human body. As P. Stallybrass writes: “Bodies come and go: the clothes that have received those bodies survive.” It is through the close interaction between dress and person that they both receive their meaning. Clothes shape the human body, and we in return shape our clothes. Dress communicates class, gender, nationality, and marital status, and we leave behind parts of us in its smell, wrinkles, wear, and tear: “Clothes receive the human imprint.” Archaeological and historical dress — no matter how ancient — remain intrinsically linked to …

Red Dyes From West To East In Medieval Europe: From Portuguese Manuscript Illuminations To Romanian Textiles, Irina Petroviciu, Paula Nabais, Maria J. Melo

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Red is the color par excellence, its symbolism being linked with protection and magic through its primary attributes, fire and blood. It was the predominant color from the earliest times, certainly during the Greek and Roman periods and into Medieval Europe, until blue became a competitor around the 13th century. Mineral pigments, like iron oxides, were the first red sources, used to draw lines, dots, or spots on cave walls or stones. Later, other mineral red pigments were also exploited: Cinnabar, natural mercury sulfide, since the Neolithic, and realgar, arsenic trisulfide, in Ancient Egypt. Scientific investigation revealed that, although …

Searching For The Exotic: Textiles, Orientalism, And Identities, Ana Cabrera, Roxana Coman, Karolina A. Kulpa, Tim Parry-Williams

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles, with their economic, sartorial, and identity-constructing functions, have long been at the center of cultural discourses, whether narrative or visual. Objects of desire, but also objects of curiosity, textiles have been the topic of costume books, offered in diplomatic exchanges, collected by private collectors and museums alike, and have traveled, sometimes as sample books. Their Othering function did not only differentiate between members of different civilizations, but also the members of the same society, where clothing was used to signal rank and function. The case studies presented intend to elaborate further on the role and symbolism associated with textiles, …

Clothing In Transition: Social, Symbolic, And Legal Aspects Of Garments From Prehistory To The Early Byzantine Period, Tina Boloti, Francesca Scotti, Cristina Cumbo, Petra Linscheid

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Since ancient times, garments served a wide range of purposes: Either functional, providing protection by covering the body, or symbolic, as an element of non-verbal communication and marker of identity. In particular, this stimulates the development of specific characteristics in shape, decoration, or material composition, which generate distinctions among garments, as acknowledged by Roman jurists too.

These distinctions are determined by various factors. One important factor is the social meaning of clothing: There are garments for public life, garments expressing rank, garments suited for special professions, or garments intended for sacred/priestly rites reflecting particular religious symbols. And, of course, clothes …

Túnicas Masculinas A Fines Del Horizonte Medio En La Costa Sur Central Del Perú, No Uno Sino Varios Estilos, Rommel Angeles Falcón

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

Las excavaciones arqueológicas en Huaca Malena (valle bajo de Asia), en la costa sur central del Perú, han permitido recuperar una importante cantidad de textiles procedentes de tumbas y de contextos secundarios de fines del período Horizonte Medio (Siglos VIII-XI d.C.). Destaca la variedad de túnicas o uncus que permiten visualizar la vestimenta masculina de la época y conocer aspectos de su tecnología, iconografía y de las relaciones inter-regionales que se dieron durante el estado wari.

Archaeological excavations at Huaca Malena (lower Asia valley), on the south central coast of Peru, have allowed the recovery of a significant amount of …

Moche-Wari Textiles From Huaca Del Sol, Moche Influence In The Middle Horizon, Amy Oakland

IX Jornadas Internacionales de Textiles Precolombinos y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference on PreColumbian and Amerindian Textiles, Museo delle Culture, Milan, 2022

This paper analyzes a selection of textiles excavated in 2013 in the destroyed late Middle Horizon (AD 800-1000) cemetery on Huaca del Sol, Huacas de Moche in the Moche Valley of northern Peru. The Huaca Sol textile group was woven with local, Moche style S-spun cotton yarns between AD 888-1050, calibrated radiocarbon dates along with a small number of Wari textiles, late Moche and Wari ceramics and ceramics in Casma and Cajamarca styles. Textile structure and design provide the basis for reconstruction into complete garment types known to other Middle Horizon collections on the central and southern coast where Moche …