Professor Rebecca Houze is a specialist in the
history of design and the decorative arts, with an emphasis on textiles and
dress. She received her B.A. from the University of Washington (1993) and her
M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1994, 2000). Her research centres
on relationships between art, industry, collection, and display in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Professor
Houze is author of Textiles, Fashion, and Design Reform in Austria-Hungary
Before the First World War: Principles of Dress (Ashgate, 2015), and New
Mythologies in Design and Culture: Reading Signs and Symbols in the Visual
Landscape (Bloomsbury, 2016). She has published her work over the years in
Journal of Design History, Design Issues, Fashion Theory, Textile,
and Centropa, and is co-editor of The Design History Reader
(Berg, 2010).
She joins TVAD as Visiting Researcher for the academic year 2016/17 and she will make two trips to UH during the year, in October and February. The programme of events through which students and staff can engage with Prof Houze is published here and is open to all.
·
TUESDAY
11th OCTOBER 2016
10.30 am
- Gallery Café. Welcome to the School of Creative Arts, and School tour and
campus tour, Dr Grace Lees-Maffei.
1.30 pm – 2.45 pm, CDC Studio. “Women’s
Needlework Education in the Late 19th Century”, Session with Contemporary Design Crafts
and/or MA students. Hosted by Antje Ilner.
·
WEDNESDAY
12th OCTOBER 2016
12.45 for
1 pm, 1A159 Lindop. Lunch provided. TVAD Talks series. Prof Rebecca Houze discusses her
monograph Textiles, Fashion and Design Reform in Austria-Hungary before the First World War
This study
offers a new reading of fin-de-siècle culture in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
by looking at the unusual and widespread preoccupation with embroidery,
fabrics, clothing, and fashion - both literally and metaphorically. Houze resurrects
lesser known critics, practitioners, and curators from obscurity, while also
discussing the textile interests of notable figures, Gottfried Semper and Alois
Riegl. Spanning the 50-year life of the Dual Monarchy, this study uncovers new
territory in the history of art history, insists on the crucial place of women
within modernism, and broadens the cultural history of Habsburg Central Europe
by revealing the complex relationships among art history, women, and
Austria-Hungary. Houze surveys a wide range of materials, from craft and folk
art to industrial design, and includes overlooked sources-from fashion
magazines to World's Fair maps, from exhibition catalogues to museum lectures,
from feminist journals to ethnographic collections. Restoring women to their
place at the intersection of intellectual and artistic debates of the time,
this book weaves together discourses of the academic, scientific, and
commercial design communities with middle-class life as expressed through
popular culture.
·
THURSDAY
13th OCTOBER 2016 to SUNDAY 16th OCTOBER
Independent research in Vienna. Prof Houze will speak about her recent research at a conference.
·
MONDAY 17th
OCTOBER 2016
10 am
to 4 pm, AB146. DHeritage Core Workshop, Year 2: ‘Proposal Development and
Presentation’. Workshop Convenor: Dr Grace Lees-Maffei. This workshop examines the development and dissemination of doctoral research in heritage.
·
TUESDAY
18th OCTOBER 2016
11 am to 12.45 pm, AB132 Todd Building. ‘Discovering New
Mythologies in Design and Culture’, MA Art and Design, Module: Research
and Enquiry workshop led by Prof Houze in which students write their own volume of
"new mythologies".
3 pm to 5
pm, Gallery Cafe. TVAD Reading Group. Session with TVAD and School research staff and PG
students focused on supportive peer review of work in progress. If you wish to
participate, please send your text to Dr
Grace Lees-Maffei g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk
·
WEDNESDAY
19th OCTOBER 2016
INDEPENDENT
RESEARCH
·
THURSDAY
20th OCTOBER 2016
5.00
– 6.30 p.m., A154 Lindop. Design Talks
series, convened by Julian Lindley. Prof Rebecca Houze discusses her work writing New Mythologies: Reading Signs and Symbols in the Visual Landscape (Bloomsbury
2016).
Taking as
its point of departure Roland Barthes' classic series of essays, Mythologies,
Rebecca Houze considers a range of contemporary phenomena, from the history
of sustainability to the meaning of sports and children's building toys. Among
the ubiquitous global trademarks she examines are BP, McDonald's, and Nike.
What do these icons say to us today? What political and ideological messages
are hidden beneath their surfaces? Just as Barthes' meditations on culture
concentrated on his native France, New Mythologies is rooted in the
author's experience of living and teaching in the United States. Houze's
reflections encompass both contemporary American popular culture and the
history of American industry, with reference to such foundational figures as
Thomas Jefferson and Walt Disney.
For questions about TVAD, TVAD Talks and the TVAD VIsiting Researcher programme, please contact the TVAD Research Group Leader, Dr Grace Lees-Maffei, g.lees-maffei@herts.ac.uk
