Research - Dr. Loretta Czernis
Dr. Loretta Czernis
Department of Sociology
Works such as Appadurai's The Social Life of Things and Emberley's The Cultural Meaning of Fur have examined how objects are brought to life, or animated, by communities that give them social and cultural significance. Dr. Czernis is interested in the social processes that inform such animation.
Throughout its long history of production and use, silk has played a fascinating role as a delineator of the shifting attributes of rank, status, and opportunity. Currently, silk is generally viewed as the fabric most steeped in luxury, and, in its use in the manufacture of lingerie, as a promoter of sexual intensity. It is not commonly known that in the past:
- people have been killed for sharing the secrets of its production;
- because of its refractive and tactile features, it has been believed to be holy;
- it has served as an indicator of military rank, as a weapon, and as bounty;
- its production procedures paved the way for a system of indentured servitude that prepared the American colonies for slavery.
Dr. Czernis' research takes a multidisciplinary approach to silk as a persistent symbol with religious, political/legal, labour, political/economic, gendered, stratified, and embodied dimensions. Silk production, consumption, and regulation are of particular interest to her. Using the method of artefact analysis and viewing silk as a social marker, she has been able to highlight some complex dimensions of social segregation and the ways in which these dimensions have become entrenched.
