Current ANTH major, Gordana Rasic, Stars in New York’s “Fashion Week”!

UIUC’s own ANTH major, Gordana Rasic, debuted her fashion line at a major fashion event in New York City yesterday.  Gordana brings her anthropological training to bear on the clothes she designs.  The theme of her current collection is “Duality within Society;” in a nod to her academic focus at the U of I on biological anthropology, her previous collection explored the theme of “Vital Organs.”  Gordana says the woman she imagines designing for is “very self-empowered and unafraid to speak her mind.”

Gordana Rasic Enjoying the Limelight (with co-designer Omar Villalobos & a Model) after Their Line Has Debuted on the Runway of EMERGE! at Fashion Week, Feb. 14, 2012 (photo by Hannah Gottlieb-Graham)

Gordana is already making a splash in the New York fashion world.  On Feb. 14, she was one of six “emerging” designers–and by far, the youngest–from around the world whose work was showcased at the third semi-annual “EMERGE!” event held as part of New York’s famed “Fashion Week.”   The event was held at the Broad Street Ballroom in lower Manhattan.

The by-invitation-only event was hosted by actress Tracee Ellis Ross and model Chavis Aaron.  At the event, canonical fashion designer, Dianne von Furstenburg, bestowed Fashion Innovator Award on Vogue magazine’s designer, André Leon Talley.  Other featured designers included  Terri Stevens, who was featured on Season 4 of “Project Runway.”  In the audience, “celebrity sightings” included Angela Simmons, Toccara, Derek J, B Smith,  Ashanti, New York Housewives Jill Zarin, and Alex and Simon McCord.

You can look at Gordana’s designs and read more about her fashion line on her homepage: http://gocadesigns.4ormat.com/home.  We can’t wait to see more from our anthropologist-fashion designer!  We’re proud of your successes, Gordana!

Gordana Rasic (with her company vice-president, Omar Villalobos) Taking Bows on the Runway after Their New Line has Debuted at the EMERGE Show of Fashion Week, 2/14/12 (photo by Hannah Gottlieb-Graham)

Gordana Relaxing on the Balcony of a NYC Bldg before Her Debut at the EMERGE Fashion Show in NYC

New Film on Industry and African-American Heritage in Edgefield, SC

Thanks to the South Carolina Humanities Council and National Endowment for the Humanities for grant support for two projects on Edgefield ceramics and archaeology. Congratulations to the Edgefield County Historical Society, as the sponsoring organization for these projects, and to George Calfas as Project Director and author of the grant proposals.

The first project consisted of a five-part speaker series convened in South Carolina in the Summer of 2011, entitled “Pottersville: 200 Years of Pottery Production in the Edgefield District.”

The second project is entitled “Pottersville: Home of Alkaline Glazed Stoneware,” and has the following description on the S.C. Humanities Council web site: “create a short documentary film of 8 to 10 minutes showcasing the alkaline-glazed stoneware tradition that is so important in Edgefield County. This film will be presented at the Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center in Edgefield, the McKissick Museum in Columbia, at regional historical society meetings, as well as on several websites, including SCETV’s KnowItAll.org, which reaches K-12 classrooms across the state” (http://schumanities.org/home).

Over the past few months Mr. Calfas and his colleagues have been working with Storyline Media to edit film footage with the goal of sharing the rich history of the pottery communities of Edgefield, the accomplishments of African-American and European-American artisans in those industries, and to document the 2011 Archaeological Fieldschool at Pottersville. The final product is a concise, 15 minute documentary now available online. In the coming month a DVD version will be added to the Anthropology department video library. If you would like a copy please let Mr. Calfas know, and please pass along this information to others who may be interested. Additional information about this multi-year, collaborative research and education project is also available online.

Alison Goebel and Chris Tan Recognized in Anthroworks Best 40 Dissertations in Cultural Anthropology 2011

Our PhD alumni Alison Goebel and Kok (Chris) Tan have been praised for authoring dissertations in the top 40 ranking by the Anthroworks web site. Congratulations to Alison and Chris!

Here are their dissertation titles and abstracts –

Small City Neighbors: Race, Space, and Class in Mansfield, Ohio, by Alison Goebel. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Advisors: Alejandro Lugo, Brenda Farnell, Ellen Moodie, David R. Roediger. This dissertation investigates social relations in a small deindustrializing city in the United States to analyze the specificities of class, “race relations,” and small city “cityness.” I conducted ethnographic research in Mansfield, Ohio, a multiracial, class-stratified city of about 50,000 residents. My work contributes to studies of whiteness and U.S. race relations by examining how whiteness hierarchically structures social relationships among neighbors. In analyzing how middle class white dominance responds to pressures that seek to undermine its privileges, my dissertation offers a small city view of U.S. race relations. My findings capture particularities of the field site as well as the consequences of global neoliberal capitalism and white racial privilege common throughout the United States.

Stand up for Singapore? Gay Men and the Cultural Politics of National Belonging in the Lion City, by Kok Tan. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Advisors: Martin Manalansan IV, F. K. Lehman, Janet D. Keller, Alejandro Lugo. This dissertation examines how Chinese-Singaporean gay men articulate their aspirations for national belonging within a recalcitrant state and its nation-building programs. These men expose the artificiality of the nation and its categories of belonging. Even as the state compels them to submit to its call for economic and biological (re)productivity, it also chastises them for their allegedly excessive individualism. In everyday life, they navigate a social landscape structured by the very real practices of an authoritarian state that criminalizes their sexuality. I argue that the illiberal state achieves its political legitimacy by convincing citizens that only it can secure Singapore’s continuous economic growth.