*Performing Cosmopolitanism: Fashion, Global Cities, and Gender

This course will explore how global cities are constructed as great sources of cosmopolitan fashion-style and how fashion, in turn, has been paramount in the construction of the modern metropolis and its conjunction with cosmopolitanism. While considering the triangulation between fashion culture, global cities and cosmopolitanism, students will analyze the gender dynamics and privileges at play in this relation. the primary focus in this course will be the gendered agency that this triangulation enables. among the questions explored: What kinds of femininity/ies and masculinity/ies are performed in this cosmopolitanism conjunction? Is this conjunction expanding female subjectivity and her urban imaginary? What kinds of omissions are necessary to fashion today’s cosmopolitan body? Are there any gaps between the worldliness ideals put forth by the fashion industry and the ways in which gendered, racialized, and classed bodies are represented? What are the gender politics behind fashion’s production and commodification of cosmopolitanism? as part of this study we will identify current theories of fashion, global cities, and cosmopolitanism. Methodologies will include ethnographic participant observation, close analyses of fashion, urban landscape, and gendered fashion bodies, as well as visual, textual, and narrative analysis of popular media. Students will carry out small research projects during the course, engaging in data gathering and analysis, either individually or in small groups. Prerequisites: Modern Dance I or equivalent. Placement audition required. cross-listed to Fashion communication and Publishing (Fashion and accessory Studies and technology).