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Textiles and Clothing,
Division of
Theatre and Dance
Textiles and Clothing, Division of
The Division of Textiles and Clothing celebrated
its 25th anniversary at Davis in 1999. Established in 1974 as an
offshoot of the Department of Consumer Sciences, the unit traces
its roots to the home economics programs at Berkeley and Davis.
When home economics at Berkeley was phased out, the two faculty
members who taught in the textiles and clothing area, Mary Ann Morris
and Agnes McClellan, were invited to become part of the expanded
program at Davis. At the time, in 1962, little research in textiles
was being done at Davis. Therefore, the move required extensive
remodeling of the home economics building to accommodate new research
needs.
In the mid-1960s the Davis program in home economics
went through a number of structural changes that resulted in the
formation of several new departments, including the Department of
Consumer Sciences, under the administration of the associate dean
for Family and Consumer Sciences. The Department of Consumer Sciences
was composed of faculty from textiles and clothing, consumer foods,
and consumer behavior. A few years later the consumer foods faculty
moved to the Department of Food Science, and in 1974 the department
was renamed the Division of Textiles and Clothing to reflect the
focus of the remaining faculty. Prior to 1977, students at the master's
level could major in home economics or consumer sciences with a
concentration in textiles. By 1977 there was sufficient critical
mass in the area of textiles to offer an M.S. in textiles, while
a Ph.D. degree was offered through the agricultural chemistry graduate
group.
In the 1960s and 1970s faculty research centered
primarily on textile science, with a focus on consumer end uses.
Research was conducted in the areas of comfort and safety (e.g.,
air pollution, flame resistance) and the chemistry and physics of
natural and synthetic fibers. Hiring of faculty with backgrounds
in the social sciences in the late 1970s and early 1980s resulted
in expansion of research to include the psychological, social, and
cultural aspects of clothing.
Today the unique strength of the textiles program
derives from its disciplinary expertise in areas ranging from fiber
chemistry, polymer science, and textile engineering to consumer
psychology and cultural studies, as well as its interdisciplinary
perspective on commodity-relevant issues. Special areas of emphasis
include cotton fiber quality, textile marketing and cultural diversity,
biomass materials, textile products for health and safety, and consumer
decision making. The division offers the only textiles program in
the UC system, while California is the second largest fiber/textile/apparel-producing
state in the nation.
Individual faculty members and the faculty as
a whole have won numerous awards. These include the American Chemical
Society's Anselme Payen award, fellowships of the International
Textile and Apparel Association, fellowships of the Textile Institute,
fellowships of the Cellulose, Paper and Textile Division of the
American Chemical Society, Fiber Society lecturerships, and the
20th Century Award for Achievement, International Biographical Centre,
medalist. The faculty as a whole won the American Textile Manufacturers
Institute Excellence in Teaching award in 1993. source
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Theatre and Dance
The Department of Theatre and Dance was formally established in
1961, although dramatic studies have been a vital part of the UC
Davis campus since the 1920s. Early classes and productions in dramatic
art were headquartered in the English division (later the Department
of English, Dramatic Art, and Speech, headed for a time by Celeste
Turner Wright). Wright, who chaired the English department for 27
of her 51 years at UCD (1928-1979), directed about 20 plays and
occasionally taught a course in drama. These early plays were performed
in an auditorium on the site of the current Shields Library. Because
female students made up only a small portion of the undergraduate
population before World War II, selecting and casting plays could
be difficult. Years later, in the fall of 1997, the UC Davis Main
Theatre was named the Celeste Turner Wright Hall in honor of her
pioneering efforts.
The Wyatt Pavilion Theatre, located across Putah Creek from the
department, was inaugurated in 1963. Originally a cattle judging
pavilion, the building initially sat on the north side of the creek
but was later moved and converted into an Elizabethan-style indoor
thrust-stage performance area with seating for 221. The current
Main Theatre, a state-of-the-art facility with proscenium seating
for 512, was built in 1967.
In 1980 the department inaugurated a program unique in American
university theater: the Granada Artists-in-Residence program. The
department contacted Granada Television in England, chosen because
of its wealth of contacts in the British theater, and set up a committee
to recommend professional artists for teaching and directing at
UC Davis for one quarter each. The first Granada artist arrived
in winter 1982. Since then, theater and dance students have benefited
from working with established professional directors, writers, and
dancers on dramatic productions and in classes.
In the mid-1990s, during the university funding
crisis, the department underwent a major transition. Longtime (22
years) Chair Robert Fahrner retired, along with the majority of
other senior faculty members. During the transitional period that
ensued, the department discontinued three of its Master of Fine
Arts programs (directing, design, and playwriting) and its M.A.
program. Under the leadership of new Chair Janelle Reinelt, however,
the department reemerged at the end of the decade with expanded
M.F.A. and Ph.D. programs. The department today produces up to ten
shows a year as part of its mission to train theater and dance students
both in practical areas of stage performance and in the theoretical
area of performance analysis. The current faculty represents specialists
in cutting-edge theories of performance, and the department is poised
to become a leader in undergraduate and graduate training in the
next century. source
See also Dramatic
Art and Speech.
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