In Focus: Interlaced Traditions—Indigenous Textiles of the American Southwest

This seminar surveys the cultural and material histories of indigenous textiles in the greater American Southwest, including Navajo, Pueblo, and Hispanic weaving traditions. Through historical and contemporary perspectives, we will explore a range of weaving practices to understand the regional variation in—and transmission of— motifs, materials, processes, and technologies. In considering the various modes and contexts of intercultural influence, adaptation, and exchange in the region, this course examines the transhistorical conditions for change in this particular medium, and how it is intertwined with materials, objects, and social practices that articulate both cultural and regional identities. We will emphasize weaving as a cultural practice, a mode of engagement with the natural world, and a system of indigenous knowledge production and transmission, in addition to its significance as an art form with a particular economic and institutional history of collection, display, and publication. As the first of two In Focus courses, students will actively participate in the development of a spring 2021 Focus Project exhibition on this topic. Coursework will include original object research at the American Museum of Natural History, design and development of a digital media component for the gallery (in consultation with the instructor and the Director of the Digital Media Lab), and several short research essays. Through seminars, guest lectures, field trips, and hands-on activities, students will learn about indigenous textile production in the Southwest from specialist scholars, museum curators and conservators, and contemporary Native artists. 3 Credits. Satisfies the non-Western requirement.