CFP - Italy Through Fashion: Histories, Theories, Practices

Call for Papers:

Italy Through Fashion: Histories, Theories, Practices

Clothing is often referred to as our “second skin,” or as Erasmus said: “Clothing is the body of the body.”

Along with fashion and textiles, clothing has been at the core of human experience, as well as at the core of great economic, political and cultural transformations—such as the transition from feudalism to capitalism, or the shift from Fordist to post-Fordist economies; they have accompanied both colonialism and struggles for decolonization; they are part of the current debate on ethics and sustainability, climate change and social justice. Fashion, clothing and textiles are ubiquitous in Italian history.

What makes fashion unique is its ability to connect different domains and spaces, such as the private and the public but also geographical spaces and places.

Although Italian fashion has a long history that has its origins in Medieval workshops and cities, until recently there has been a lack of scholarship in English that organically presents the key transnational and global role Italy plays and has played in that history. In addition, we have few English translations of key writings from Italian authors throughout the ages that help to reassess the role of Italy in global history.

This volume will focus on Italian fashion, its culture and its history within a broad interdisciplinary context from the Middle Ages to the present. The book aims to be a resource for courses on the “Made in Italy,” Italian Fashion, and Italian Cultural Studies, both for upper level undergraduate and graduate students in colleges and universities. The book would be particularly useful for programs in Italian studies and support an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Italy and its culture.

It will offer an innovative collection of essays that bring diverse approaches to Italian fashion as a manufacturing industry and a strong symbolic force, its impact on life in Italy, on the cultural imagination outside of Italy and on the construction of the concept of "italianità."

We will solicit submissions on several specific areas and historical periods of Italian fashion approached from an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective that will take into consideration politics and different movements, from humanism to feminism etc.; photography and illustration, literature and journalism, history, technology, social engagement and climate change, labor and migration (migration to and from Italy), art and design, cinema and screen media, textile, material culture, economics/economic history, archive and museum studies, music, science fiction, new media, videogames et al.

All essays must be no more than 5000 words in length, be in English and not already published. Before final acceptance all essays will be submitted for blind review.

Please send one page proposals (between 500 and 750 words) with a short Bio and relevant bibliography to both Prof. Eugenia Paulicelli, Queens College and The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (eugenia.paulicelli@qc.cuny.edu e/o epaulicelli@gc.cuny.edu) and Prof. Emanuela Scarpellini, Università Statale di Milano (emanuela.scarpellini@unimi.it) by 15th January 2021 Prospective authors will be notified of acceptance of the proposal by 15th February 2021.