Call for Abstracts | Special Issue of Fashion Theory
Call for Abstracts for a special issue of "Fashion Theory" entitled “Fashion as Politics: Dressing Dissent”.
At present we are witnessing an unprecedented politicization of fashion in a global political climate characterized by the rise of far right, authoritarian, populist and neoliberal movements. From the ubiquity of pink Pussy Hats as symbols of resistance to the Trump administration to the employment of migrants and refugees in the Turkish garment industry, from the ongoing debates about racial and ethnic diversity on and off the catwalks to the decolonization of fashion’s past and future through the growth of Afrofuturism, contemporary fashion is deeply imbedded in current global politics. Fashion has always provided rich visual, material, symbolic and narrative spaces within which to articulate, negotiate and perform political issues and a vast body of historical research testifies to the many links between fashion and politics.
The special issue of Fashion Theory – The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture entitled “FASHION AS POLITICS: DRESSING DISSENT” focuses on the present and aims at exploring the links between contemporary politics and fashion and to examine fashion’s role in advancing and disseminating political goals, resistance and dissent on a regional, national and global scale.
The editors of the special issue invite contributions from scholars who put current political discourses, movements and political events in relation to fashion design, fashion practices or fashion theory. The special issue proposes to depict the variety of ways in which fashion partakes in, shapes and intervenes in contemporary global political and social developments such as migration, technological progress, decolonization, neoliberalism and globalization.
Suggested topics for the papers include, but are not limited to:
- Political dressing and critical fashion practices as manifestations of political activism, protest, resistance and revolt against authoritarian, right-wing and populist politics
- Decolonizing, anti-racist, queer, feminist, and radical political strategies in fashion design and fashion media production
- Fashion production, labour geographies and post-colonial politics of the contemporary garment industry
- The politics of cultural appropriation, ownership and cultural exchange in fashion
- Socially engaged practices of digital fashion technologies
- Dress, displacement and global migration
The call is open to abstracts from all research methods and disciplines. We encourage innovative and new fashion research. Please submit a paper abstract of 250 words and a short biography to austrian.fashionresearch@gmail.com by June 30, 2018.
The special issue of Fashion Theory is edited by the Austrian Center for Fashion Research, a co-operation between the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Dr. Elke Gaugele and Dr. Monica Titton) and the University for the Arts Linz (Dr. Christiane Luible-Bär and Wally Salner).