Fashion Studies
MALS students take four classes within the program—Introduction to Graduate Liberal Studies, two core courses in their chosen track, and the thesis—and choose their remaining electives from among all courses offered across the doctoral and certificate programs at the Graduate Center.
MALS Track in Fashion Studies
The CUNY Graduate Center — located on Fifth Avenue in a landmark building, the former B. Altman department store — is the only University in the US that is not a design or fashion school to offer a Master’s degree in Liberal Studies with a track in Fashion Studies. This is a groundbreaking area of specialization that offers the chance to study the phenomenon of fashion from a variety of standpoints and in a unique interdisciplinary framework. The track in fashion is the result of more than a decade of academic international conferences, exhibitions, film screenings and festivals, and PhD seminars that have taken place at the Graduate Center and that culminated with the establishment of the PhD concentration in Fashion Studies available to PhD students.
This new concentration will enable students to serve as adjunct instructors in the CUNY colleges and beyond where fashion courses are taught.
The Graduate Center boasts an internationally renowned faculty in all areas and disciplines. The GC is also the site of a number of prestigious centers of research, such as the Center for the Humanities, The Center for the Study of Women and Society, The Gotham Center, The Center for Place, Culture and Politics, The Center of Gay and Lesbian Studies as well as the New Media Lab.
With the historical Garment district and the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology a few blocks away, the GC is located at the interface between the academy and industry. This strategic geographical location at the heart of New York City, one of the world’s fashion capitals, make the GC the ideal place and environment to study fashion in action.
Fashion is an economic force, a culture industry and a powerful way to convey identity, politics, status, and personality. Fashion can simultaneously express freedom and constriction, be both democratic and totalitarian; and both repress and liberate the body and gender roles. A thorough study of the history of fashion in its symbolic, creative and coercive faces, shows how it has been crucial in the construction of national identities in fascist regimes or in processes of decolonization, such as in India, or in the remapping of the world economy, including China, India and Brazil, even in past epochs like the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Fashion is closely tied to industrial, technological and economic developments and is at the center of cultural activity and change. In today’s globalised world, the fashion and textile industry are key factors to understand the profound transformations occurring in cities, nations and regions the world over.
Underlining all the recent scholarly attention that has been given to fashion is the intent of stripping it of its apparent light and frivolous reputation, and replacing it with a serious scholarly investigation that seeks to uncover the many complex layers that its surface conceals. The study of fashion, costume and dress has not only involved a series of disciplines, but has also had the effect of expanding the boundaries of these disciplines
After being trained in the core courses the program requires, students choose from among a number of electives that will be offered through the Inter-Disciplinary Studies Concentration in Fashion and the wide range of courses offered in the social sciences and the humanities by departments and programs at the GC. Students will receive guidance to develop their own plan of study according to their main research interest and training.
The Track’s two core courses are: MALS 71200. The Culture of Fashion. The course will introduce students the fashion system, its implications with body, gender and class. It will also consider its role and power in the context of global history, from nations to empire and to globalization as well as recent developments in digital technology. Students will get acquainted with the foundational theories of fashion as well as the most recent research in fashion studies.; and MALS 71300. The Business of Fashion. The course will offer students in depth and critical knowledge of how the business of fashion works through study of new scientific research in technology, design, textile, the functioning of modeling industry etc. as well as addressing issues of globalization, sustainability and the environment.
The two core courses are strictly interrelated and will connect the culture and the business of fashion in a broad theoretical framework and as practiced and communicated via museums, galleries, design houses, magazines, fashion shows and weeks, and department stores.
New York, one of the global capitals of fashion, is the ideal place to study fashion. As part of the requirements of the classes, students will visit some of the NYC museums such as the MET, FIT, Cooper Hewitt, as well as meeting with professionals working in the fashion industry (designers, creative directors, department store buyers, journalists and photographers). Students will also and participate in the many lectures and international conferences organized at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Students will be encouraged to develop a theoretical and rigorous framework that will enable them to conduct research for their final thesis.
Upon completing the MALS degree, students will be qualified to enter doctoral studies in related fields, such as art history, anthropology, sociology (e.g., globalization, gender studies, consumption, urban studies etc.), business, psychology, film studies, women’s studies, English, etc. Employment opportunities include placement within several organizations in the culture industries, PR and consulting firms, NY fashion week, journalism, museums, the retail and fashion industry, or teaching in one of the programs in fashion offered within CUNY and at other New York schools.
Questions about the MALS track in Fashion Studies may be directed to liberalstudies@gc.cuny.edu.
SPRING 2013 Updates
For prospective and continuing students, please refer to the following Spring 2013 Course Offerings listed below.
Concentration in Fashion Studies and MALS track in Fashion: History Theory and Practice
Questions about our fashion track and course listings? Please contact Prof. Eugenia Paulicelli, Coordinator @ 212 – 817-8171
The Concentration in Fashion Studies is available for all PhD and MA students enrolled at the Graduate Center; a track in Fashion is available for MALS students. Students in the Fashion concentration are required to take two core courses (IDS 82300, The Fabric of Cultures; IDS 81300, Fashion Power and Space), and two other courses (one in the Arts and Humanities; the other in the Social Sciences). Students in the MALS Fashion track are required to take the two core courses (MALS 71200, The Cultures of Fashion; and MALS 71300, The Business of Fashion), one core course “Introduction to Graduate Liberal Studies”; and six other courses. Both IDS Concentration students and MALS students may select their non-core courses from the list below. In addition, the MA students are required to write a Fashion Studies related thesis.
CORE COURSE for Spring 2013
IDS 82300 The Fabric of Cultures: New York Fashion cross-listed with MALS 71200, ART 81101; ASCP 81500
Relevant and Related Courses
ANTH. 70200 Cultural Anthropology II
GC: M 10:45- 1:45 Prof. Susser
ANTH 72200. Anthropology of Work and Labor
GC: T, 4:15-6:15 Prof. Blim
ANTH. 80500 – Methods Module Interviewing
GC: R 2:00 – 4:00 Prof. Low
ANTH 81400 – The Question of Money
GC: M 4:15- 6:15 Prof Harvey
ANTH. 82100 Transnational Social Movements
GC: W 9:30 – 11:30 Prof. Edelman
ANTH. 83500 Material Cult/Cultural Contact
GC.: W 2:00- 4:00 Prof. Pugh
ART 79000 History of Contemporary Photography
GC W 4:15-6:15 Prof. Wilson
ART 79400 Aesthetics of Film
GC W 2:00-6:00 Prof. Gerstner
ART 8200 Art/ArchGr Rome/Nr/East/Egypt
GC W: 6:30- 8:30 Prof. Macaulay Lewis
ART 86020 Women’s Art/Feminist Art
GC: W 2;00- 4:00 Prof. Chave
ART 87300 Postwar Visual Culture NY/LA
GC: W 6:30-8:30 Prof. Hadler
ART 80010. The fabric of Cultures: NY Fashion
GC: R 4:15-6:15 Prof Paulicelli Cross Listed with IDS 82300, MALS 72100, ASCP 81500 & WSCP 81100
MGT 88000 Theories of Entrepreneurship
Bar: W, 12- 2:00, Prof. Heck
MKT. 88500, Consumer Behavior
Bar: T, 2:00- 4:00 Prof. Gould
ENGL. 80200. Odd Secrets of the Line
GC: T 2:00-4:00 Prof. Koestenbaum
ENGL. 86600 Postcolonial Culture/The City
GC: F. 11:45-1:45 Prof Dawson
IDS 70200 Biography as a Genre: A brief History
GC: T 6:30-8:30 pm Prof. Matteson
IDS 81650 Big Data/Visualztn/Dig. Humanities
GC M, 2:00 – 4:00 Prof. Manovich Cross listed with MALS 78500
IDS 82300 New York Fashion
MES, 72900 – Mediated Culture in Mid. East GC: M 6:30 – 8:30 Prof. Salamandra
MALS 71000, Forms of Life Writing
T, 4:15 – 6:15 Prof. Gail Levin
MALS 70000, Decoding Celebrity
M, 6:30-8:30 Prof. Linda Grasso
PSY 72300 Current Issues in PSYCH/Development
GC: T: 11:45- 1:45 Prof. Glick
SOC. 77800 Sociology of Medicine
GC. W 2:00-4:00 Prof. Pitts-Taylor
SOC 80000 Latour & Foucault
GC. W 6:30- 8:30 Prof. Clough
SOC. 81100 Urban Research Seminar
GC. T 2:00-4:00 Prof. Zukin
SOC. 81200 Ethnography
GC: R 11:45- 1:45 Prof. Duneier
SOC. 82200 International Migration
GC. W, 6:30-8:30 Prof. Bozorgmehr
SOC. 85800 Immg in Era of Globalization
GC: T. 4:15-6:15 Profs. Alba/Foner
ITCP. 70020 Theory/Design/Practice
GC: T 4:15-6:15 Prof. Waltzer
WSCP 81100 Gender/Sexuality/20th Century
GC: R, 2:00-4:00 Prof Hurewitz Cross listed with Hist 75700 & ASCP 81500
*Photo Credits: (First image) Chimera Damanhurian Inspired Art, Fashion and Design: Photos by Gianluca Scolaro Clothing by Aythya Pimpinella Hair and Makeup by Performa Eco-Style, Flickr Creative Commons (Second Image)New York: Empty Streets, photo credit: Naro; (Third Image)Photo by: World Fashion Group, On Aura Tout Vu_Fashion-2091World Luxury Fashion Week, Abu Dhabi – 26/11/12 (Fourth Image) Photos by Mavis, mike krzeszak, at Flickr.com; (Fifth Image) Photo by: one2c900d, from Flickr. com; (Sixth Image) Photo Credit: Shutterboy Creative Jason W.; Flickr. com; (Seventh Image)Merceds Benz Fashion Week Berlin 2011 Impressions, Details in Pixel, Photo by Thorsten Lajdych; (Eighth Image) Photo Credit: The Shopping Sherpa, Book 1 02;