Architectural Studies 322 - Weaving Worlds: The Art and Architecture of Cloth (TBC)

(Offered as ARHA 322, ARCH 322, ASLC 322, and EUST 322) Textiles are the stuff of life. For all of human history, in every culture, people have found ways to process plant fibers, animal hair, and, more recently, synthetic materials to make clothing, furnishings, and architecture. Cloth is central to self-expression and identity, community and tradition, and comfort and care. At the same time, cloth has played a fundamental part in global histories of colonialism, industrialization, extraction, and trade. In this course, we will explore the complex and at times paradoxical stories associated with textiles—from cotton threads and indigo dye to saris and tents—focusing in particular on Asian, European, North African, and North American case studies dating from the medieval period to the present. We will consider these materials through the lenses of shelter and belonging, mobility and migration, authority and power, craft and labor, exploitation and commodification, revolution and resistance, and self-fashioning and gender. We will analyze textiles in local collections; learn from a variety of specialists, including the director of the Mead Art Museum; and experiment with making exercises in order to better understand the materials and technologies of textile production. Students will have the opportunity to engage closely with an exhibition of contemporary textile artist Swapnaa Tamhane’s work at the Mead Art Museum in fall 2025. Previous study or knowledge of textiles is not required.

Limited to 12 students. Fall 2025: Associate Professor Rice and Visiting Assistant Professor Dostal.

How to handle overenrollment: Priority given to: ARHA, ARCH, ASLC, EUST

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Visual analysis, writing, critical reading, application of varied methodologies, object-centered learning, research, field trips, experience with making, conversations with varied specialists and practitioners