ARTH 392 Gender Issues in Art and Art History: Women Producers & Consumers

• Mondays, 2:45-5:30 pm
• Instructor: Mónica Rojo

This is a survey course that will provide an overview of women as producers and consumers during the time period between 1700 and 1900 in Western Europe. Using the foldable hand fan as reflective lens, we will examine the historical and socio-political context in which women produced and consumed goods as well as their role in shaping these contexts. Topics that will be touched on include sumptuary laws, Guilds, the Enlightenment, Industrialization, the domestic sphere, public and private spaces, women as commercial agents, history of retail, fashion, Craft and design, fine and applied arts, print media and marketing, the crafting and performance of identity (gender, class, national, etc.), gendered labour, and feminism and women's rights. Official historical records, histories, and history studies pertaining to Western Europe were predominantly written by men and focused on the role of men. To achieve a more complete and complex view of women's role in historical societies, historians must make use of a wider variety of textual and visual primary and secondary sources. It is the aim of this course to provide students with the practice of identifying, examining, and analyzing these types of sources in order to be able to identify and discuss the agency and role of women in cultural, political, and economic practices as producers and as consumers.

This course combines traditional academic approaches to curriculum through lectures, readings, and a research paper along with student-centered activities and embodied learning. Drawing from course material and independent research, students will learn to needlepoint, one of the industries in which women worked, and will design and create an original needlework piece using the time period and geographical area for their creative framework.