TCD Loose Threads Archive - September 2009

• TCD Announces First China Study Tour May 15 - 27, 2010
• TCD PhD students receive John and Louise Skala Fellowships
• This Season '09 - The Green Issue

From May 15 –27, 2010, TCD students and faculty will travel to Shanghai, China and surrounding textile centers for the first TCD China Study Tour, part of the department’s series of annual study tours that also include on a rotating basis New York City, Paris, Prague, London and other European textile and apparel centers. Asia is now added to this rotation, and China its first destination.  

China is one of the world’s major social, political and economic forces, and its stunning rise as a manufacturing powerhouse has captured global notice. China’s ancient history and its rich and varied cultures offer intriguing counterpoints to its rapid industrial growth, and this study tour will provide insights into each of these dimensions of contemporary China. From Shanghai’s fast-paced and dense metropolitan mass to the history-laden gardens of ancient canal towns, our itinerary will encompass the old and the new, the past and the present, the rare and the everyday, and will offer study tour participants a close look at textiles and apparel spanning centuries.

 2007 Student Apparel Design Exhibition at Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China

Each day of our study tour will offer lenses onto textile and apparel history and textile and apparel design, production and retailing today. We’ll look at the historical and contemporary Chinese arts that have influenced China’s textile and apparel designers, including bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy and a wide range of costume from China’s diverse ethnic populations. We’ll see silk production at its source and we’ll visit silk markets and museums that document its long and vivid history. Along the way we’ll see futurist urban landscapes, great architecture of the past as well as the present, quiet garden sanctuaries and bustling shikumen neighborhoods (stone gate houses) in the shadows of modern high rises, and we'll encounter the latest cutting-edge trends both in upscale designer boutiques and in the pavilions of Expo 2010.

 Jiangnan University campus, Wuxi, China

Our host universities, Donghua University in Shanghai and Jiangnan University in Wuxi (pronounced ‘woo-shee’) will serve as bases during the 12 day trip. The estimated price of $2800-$2900 includes roundtrip airfare from Lincoln, hotel accommodations (double occupancy) with breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, excursions and field trips, English-speaking local guides, selected admissions  and insurance. Additional tuition and fees for 2 credit hours through UNL Summer Sessions will be approximately $375.

Ancient canal, Suzhou, China 

The tour will be led by Professors Yiqi Yang, Barbara Trout and Michael James. Dr. Yang and Dept. Chair Michael James will speak to Dr. Trout’s History of Costume class about the trip on Friday September 11 at 11 a.m., and to MONTAGE members onWednesday October 7 at 8:15 p.m. in city campus Union.  An open informational session and Q&A about the trip will be hosted by Dr. Yang and Michael James in the TCD conference room HECO 228.1 from 12 noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday September 29. 

 Suzhou Art Museum designed by I. M. Pei

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  l. to r. Quiran "Jesse" Jiang, Helan Xu, and Dr. Yiqi Yang 

TCD Textile Science graduate students Qiuran Jiang and Helan Xu were among recipients of Agricultural Research Division awards and fellowships officially recognized on Thursday September 3 at the annual Fellowship luncheon in East Campus Union. Jiang and Xu are recipients of the 2009-2010 John & Louise Skala Fellowships, recognizing outstanding performance as graduate students who are engaged in research for new industrial uses of agricultural products. The award comes with a $5000 stipend applied to the students’ assistantships.  

Quiran “Jesse” Jiang received Bachelor and Master of Textile Engineering degrees from Donghua University in Shanghai, China, before beginning her doctoral work at UNL. She expects to complete her dissertation, Modification and Biomedical Applications of Plant Protein Biomaterials, in August 2011.

Helan Xu received Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the College of Textiles at Donghua University, Shanghai, and is now pursuing her PhD here at UNL. Her research area and potential dissertation focus is Fabrication of Nanocapsules from Plant Proteins and Investigation of their Applications.

Both students are advised by Dr. Yiqi Yang, himself a graduate of Donghua University.

TCD congratulates Qiuran and Helan  on this accomplishment!

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A new issue of the student-produced ‘zine This Season has been published and is available at various pick-up locations in the department.  The Green Issue ’09 brought together the talents and skills of a large group of UNL and TCD students under the editorial leadership of Brittney Schuessler, Editor-in-Chief, Madison Simmons, Chief-of-Design, Rachel Sullivan, Chief-of-Photography, and Kristen Vanhessche, Illustrator. Brittney brought to her editor-in-chief role insights gleaned from her summer internship at ELLE Magazine in New York City.

This season’s issue focuses on “going green” and the contributions to sustainability in the textile and apparel industres that eco-conscious designers, production and manufacturing enterprises, merchants and consumers can make.  Local businesses like The Black Market and local designers like Erica White, a TCD graduate student in apparel design, demonstrate how ‘thinking global but acting local’ can impact communities both large and small.

TCD salutes all of its undergraduate and graduate students whose enthusiasm and hard work made this impressive publication possible! We’re looking forward to the next issue!

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