Academic Writing
Weaving Social Power: Women, Gender, and Silk in the Han Dynasty
December 2023
In this paper, I explore how women in the Han Dynasty utilized weaving and associations with weaving to gain social power in the face of a Confucian society that sought to limit them to private, indoor spaces.
Fashioning Fantasy: K-pop and the South Korean Government
May 2023
In this paper, I explore the relationship between South Korea and soft power, diving into the image heavy construction of fictional universes in K-pop that has helped attract interest and support for Korean culture globally.
Women in the Qing Dynasty: Embroidery, Avenues of Feminity, and Confucianism
December 2024
This is my master's thesis that focuses on the different opportunities embroidery afforded women in the Qing dynasty in the face of a Confucian society that sought to limit them to indoor spaces and activities away from the public sphere.
Gallery Proposal:
“Learning to Paint the Body in Premodern China: Embroidery and Literati Arts”
December 2023
This proposal, created for The Metropolitan Museum's Gregory Curatorial Practice Program: Urgent Issues in Curatorial Practice, builds off The Met's exhibit, Learning to Paint in Premodern China, by focusing on the embroidery work that was built up by women during the premodern period in China and the different ways they transformed cultural understandings related to painting and apply to textile arts.
Fashioning Chinese Identity: Chinese Dress from the Qing to the Contemporary
December 2017
This research paper outlines the role of clothing in China from the Qing dynasty to modern day and who the trend makers in fashion are in China. I highlight how the government was once the trend maker when China was concerned about it's cultural identity on a purely national scale. However, once China becomes concerned about it's cultural identity on a global scale, the people become the trend makers.
Reflective Clothes
May 2017
In this shorter paper, I follow the European shift away from Baroque clothing to Romantic clothing and how this exposes a deeper ontological shift in how people viewed their understanding and place in the world. I utilize brocade fabric and the empire waistline as starting points before diving deeper into their ontological implications.
Fashioning Cultural Identity: The Chinese Government and Shanghai Youth Culture
May 2018
In this paper I explore the historical role of Shanghai as a port city and its unique "haipai" culture in relation to how Shanghai youths create globalized forms of fashion. Despite limited internet access, I highlight how Shanghai youth find ways to stay relevant globally and how their fashion is a direct reflection of this.
Fashioning Gender Identity: Contemporary Masculinity and the Choker
May 2018
This is a paper that draws connections between Mikhal Bakhtin's literary theory of heteroglossia, contemporary theories of gender, and clothing. In it, I explore how articles of clothing, like words, can have numerous meanings to different people and how this reflects the emergence of different types of contemporary masculinity in modern times.
Fashioning Self Identity: The Romantic Dandy in History and Now
December 2018
This paper outlines the rise and continuation of the dandy, a fashionable figure that first rose in the late 1700s. Exploring the dandy's relation to Immanuel Kant's theory of the genius, I take a dive into how the dandy came about and how it has lasted and changed into the modern day.
Fashioning Class Identity: The Anxieties of the Gentry in the Ming
December 2018
Here I explored the role of clothing as a driving factor in the creation of a new social class during the Ming dynasty. I outline how the changing economy set the stage for the role of clothing to shift during this time and how the gentry of the Ming reacted to this change.
Fashioning Spaces: Zhuangzi, Poetry, and the Art of Getting Dressed
April 2020
This is my undergraduate senior thesis that I wrote over the course of my senior year. It focuses on the creation of a space that allows for image to communicate deep meaning, which can be found in the Ancient Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi's writings, Chinese poetry, and the rhetoric around fashion among Shanghai youth.
Dressing the Part
May 2020
This is a shorter paper I wrote comparing the writings of Confucius and the Stoic philosopher Epictetus about appearance. Both focus on the idea that after sufficient and proper inner cultivation, a person's outward appearance will naturally match their role in society.
Perception of Clothing
July 2016
In this paper I wrote during a pre-college summer class, I utilize Ann Arnett Ferguson's book Bad Boys as a frame of reference to explore how the hyper criminalization of young black boys is often done through a teacher's dangerous interpretation of their clothing.