TMD News
Fall 2009
- We welcomed Blaire Gagnon to our faculty over the summer. Blaire has a Ph.D. from UConn, but is a familiar face in the department, having completed her MS degree here in 2004. She replaces Abby Lillethun and will teach in the Socio-cultural areas of our curriculum.
- We also welcome Nina Mathewson as our department secretary. Nina was most recently in the music department.
- The University's 2009 Honors Colloquium is "Demystifying India". TMD has a particular involvement in the presentation on November 19th (Thursday) by Henry Glassie and Pravina Shukla of Indiana University which deals with the sacred image and modern dress in India. Glassie is a world renowned folklorist, and Shukla is the author of the award winning book "The grace of four moons".
- The 2009 "Spring Splash" happened in April with the theme of "Rock the Runway". This event allowed us to award several scholarships, welcome alumnae to our wall of fame, and recognize new industry partners.
- In scholarship news, Nancy Tong won the Elizabeth W. Christopher Memorial Scholarship. Nancy is studying Chinese and is studying there now as part of her undergraduate degree. Ashley Matassa was awarded the Home Economics Endowment for the Study of Business. Ashley is a senior from Hopkinton RI and is a TM major.
- As usual, this semester many of our majors are studying abroad. This furthers our goal of making our students more globally aware.
- This summer students Shaina Bender, Stephanie Champa, Claire Gould, Kimberly Holmes, Monique Katz, and Raquel Sigmund studied at Kent State University's New York Studio. This is a valuable opportunity for them to get to know their way around "the city"
- Fourteen students went on the 2009 Winter break study tour of
London and Paris led Susan Hannel. You can see pictures
from the trip. A typical quote from one of last year's students: "The study tour was one of the
best experiences I have had as a student here at URI. I learned so
much: not only about fashion, but also about myself." Yvette Harps-Logan will lead the 2010 tour: planning is well underway.
- The seminar class (TMD 402) is the "capstone class" for the department's majors. It runs with a different theme each spring semester, and features a series of guest speakers from industry. Linda Welters will direct the `2010 seminar on "Fashion and Art". She directed spring 2009's seminar on Innovation. You can see all the details of past seminars: the 2008 seminar on the theme of Sustainability. the 2007 seminar was "Fashion for all Ages" the 2006 seminar was "Made in China", organized by Sook-Hyun Kim. Susan Hannel led the 2005 seminar on "The Art and Science of Fashion". Past semesters have dealt with Current Issues in Retailing (2004) "Innovation" (2003), Globalization in the Textile and Apparel Complex (2002), "The Future of Fashion." (2001), and "Changing Demographics" (2000). Follow the links to see the lists of speakers, and summaries of their talks.
- The fall semester sees continuing contributions from our cadre of part-time faculty. Gideon Loewenstein (interior design), and Karl Aspelund (apparel design) are doing their usual sterling job. George Dubois is teaching Color Science (TMD113), Diane Martin is teachingTMD 325. You can see their faces and bios on our "Lecturers" page.
- Abby Lillethun and Linda Welters are working on the second edition of "The Fashion Reader". The first edition, published by Berg in 2007, included contributions from Ric McIntyre, Yngve Ramstead and Art Mead of URI's Economics Department. Illustrations from Joy Emery and The Commercial Pattern Archive as well as URI Library's Special Collections were featured, along with photos of items from the Department's Historic Collection.
