CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Spring 2025 Fashion & Textile Symposium: Fashion in Action - Revolution, Resistance, & War
GCV&M’s 2025 Spring Symposium explores how fashion, garment, and textiles have been used as tools of revolution, resistance, and war during extraordinary times in American history. This symposium asks presenters and guests to consider how 19th-century fashion, garment, and textiles were affected by rapid cultural, societal, technological, or political change.
Symposium dates: Saturday & Sunday, April 26 & 27, Mumford, NY
(This event is part of a four-day skills conference and fashion symposium.)
Session Prompts
We welcome sessions in the fields of museum studies; fashion and textile history, design, or studies; art history; or other relevant fields.
This Symposium invites 60-minute individual or group presentations, and two select 45-minute graduate student new research presentations relevant to this year’s prompts:
- Talks exploring 19th-century American military uniform, the influence of military uniform in civilian dress, and how war affected how 19th-century textiles were produced, allotted, and made accessible are welcome.
- This symposium seeks discussions exploring 19th-century fashion, textiles, and garment as tools of resistance – resistance against change, resistance against societal norms, or resistance against cultural assimilation and erasure.
- How can historic fashion, garment, or textiles offer relevant perspective in times of extraordinary change, resistance, or conflict?
- How are revolutions in 19th-century American fashion, garment, and textiles related to the current state of fashion, garment, and textiles in America?
Proposal & Session Details
Session proposals should include a title and abstract, names and number of presenters, and associated institution.
Requirements
- The session title is limited to 75 characters and should accurately describe your session.
- The abstract/description must be submitted in a publishable format and is limited to 1,500 characters, including spaces. The description should be detailed to assist the planning committee in its review.
- Session content must adhere to the topic of the selected prompt, endeavoring to answer open-ended questions fully.
- Ideal proposed content should be engaging, relevant, and interactive.
Session Types
Individual or Group Presentation
- Composed of a single speaker or a maximum of two speakers presenting for a total of 60 minutes, including questions.
Graduate New Research Presentation
- Composed of a single graduate student presenter, presenting new research relevant to the symposium’s prompts, presenting for 45 minutes, including questions.
Guidelines and Procedures
- All session are presented in-person, at Genesee Country Village & Museum on either Saturday, April 16th or Sunday, April 27th.
- Confirm and then submit a proposal only if you (the submitter) and co-speakers have agreed and secured funding from your institution to register at the discounted speaker rate and are able to attend the conference.
- You may be asked for additional materials if your proposal is accepted, including a presentation outline, presentation source material, a résumé or CV, and a headshot for each speaker.
- All session titles and descriptions, along with speaker names, job titles, institutions, and states are part of the official conference program and will be edited for consistency and accuracy.