FA5033 - Fashioning Identities

You will attend weekly sessions, where workshops will assist you in developing your practice and your understanding of methods of communication linked to fashion media, garments, fashion stories and, ultimately, notions of identity. Workshops and content delivery will enhance your knowledge of the theoretical considerations surrounding aspects of fashion communication and identity, where appropriate research methodologies will be outlined and explored alongside staff within workshops. Identifying and exploring these methods will allow students to redeploy such practices within the module assessment and support your academic development in final year. Tutorials will benefit from peer discussion, where best practice can be further identified for you to align your process and outcomes to. You will be encouraged to enhance your visual and textual literacy as part of the module, maintain contemporary awareness of current issues and debates impacting the themes of the module.

Further, more focused support in tutorial sessions will assist students in developing final submission, encouraging them to engage with appropriate texts to fully support and articulate their concepts.

An initial briefing will outline the goals of the module, alongside the structure of the sessions to follow. Workshops will be delivered by knowledgeable staff, often reflecting their own research interests linked to the Fashion Communication sector. Where applicable, technical skills will be delivered by expert staff, providing demonstrations and support for students across their process. Where possible, industry experts will provide further insight in guest lectures as to practices linked to fashion space and styling. Concepts of fashion communication and identity will be discuss across the module, alongside considerations surrounding appropriate and useful research methodologies. Tutorials will be aimed at further developing your final submission. Group work/peer discussion linked to the ongoing improvement of your practice, will assist your development in terms of knowledge, understanding and communication skills.

Further support regarding academic writing will be provided via the University Library.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Analyse and debate contemporary Fashion Communication considerations and issues from social and cultural perspectives.
2. Independently source and engage with a broad range of primary and secondary research material, and demonstrate your ability to review, reflect on and evaluate findings.
3. Demonstrate through enquiry-based practice, your advanced interdisciplinary understanding of the fashioning of identities in Fashion Communication practice.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
4. Select and appropriately apply a range of research methods and approaches in the development of fashion communication outputs.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. Demonstrate a professional attitude to your studies through engagement with programme staff, peer interactivity; and through project management skills such as the investigation, organisation, curation, realisation and presentation of your activities.

FORMATIVE: Formative feedback will be delivered across the module. This can be verbal and/or textual and will be aligned to workshop activities.

SUMMATIVE
A 2,500 word Multimedia Research Presentation (80%)
Presentations will include a minimum of 20 slides, with an indicative length of 20 minutes, an accompanying script and a full list of references (in Harvard format) (LO1,2,3,4)

Research and Development file (20%)
This will include plans, drafts, work in progress and reflective notes from tutorials with your project mentor. (LO5)

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Students will build on key concepts in fashion media, culture and history explored and interrogated in year one, covering a range of disciplines, this time applying more advanced research methodologies. You will learn how garments and clothes tell stories, and contribute to the creation of intersectional identities.

This module offers you the opportunity to deepen your knowledge and understanding of fashion communication in relation to critical and cultural contexts. It will introduce you to the different research methodologies through which fashion is interpreted in academia. A programme of stimulating lectures, workshops and theory-based sessions will develop your understanding and critical engagement with contextual fashion issues, fashion theory, critical analysis and research, and support you in writing a thought-provoking research-informed multimedia research presentation or essay.