Joanne Eicher

Joanne Eicher, also known as Joanne Bubolz Eicher, born in 1930,[1] is a retired professor and author who was at one point the leading scholar on Kalabari textiles.[2][3]

Education

In 1952 Eicher received an MS in sociology and anthropology, and in 1959 she received a PhD in sociology and anthropology, all from Michigan State University. She had previously received a BA from Michigan State University in 1948, having majored in languages and literature and minored in textiles and clothing.[4]

Career

Eicher was part of the faculty of Michigan State University's Department of Human and Environmental Design beginning in the late 1960s and continuing until 1977.[4] That year she became head of the Department of Textiles and Clothing at the University of Minnesota;[5] she held that position until 1983. From 1983 until the end of 1987 she was the Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel's head, also at the University of Minnesota.[2] She taught at that university until her retirement in 2005, and in 1995 she was given a Regents’ Professorship there.[2][6] She eventually became regents professor emerita.[7]

She was also director of the Goldstein Museum of Design from 1983 to 1987.[8]

She was a speaker as part of the Margaret Ritchie Distinguished Speaker series at the University of Idaho in 2003.[9][10]

She was a member of the Textile Research Centre's Advisory Council beginning in 2006. She was also on the board of the Textile Society of America from 2008 to 2012.[11]

She is the editor-in-chief of the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, first published in print in 2010.[7]

Selected Bibliography as Author

Source:[11]

• Johnson, K.K.P., Torntore, S.J. and Eicher, J.B., (2003). Fashion Foundations: Early Writings on Dress. Oxford, UK, Berg Publishers.
• Eicher, J.B. and Ling, Lisa, (2005). Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride: Rituals of Womanhood, Washington, D. C. National Geographic Society.
• Eicher, J.B. and Evenson, S.L, (2014). The Visible Self: Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture and Society, 4th ed. New York: Fairchild Publishers.
• Eicher, J.B. and Evenson, S.L, (2023). The Visible Self: Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture and Society, 5th ed. New York: Fairchild Publishers.

Selected Bibliography as Editor

Source:[11]

• Roach-Higgins, M.E., Eicher, J.B., & Johnson, K.P. (Eds.) (1995). Dress and identity. New York: Fairchild Books.
• Eicher, J.B. (Ed.) (1995). Dress and Ethnicity: Chance Across Space & Time, Berg Publishers.
• Sciama, L., Eicher, J.B. (Eds.). (1998) Beads and Beadmakers: Gender, Material Culture, and Meaning. Oxford/New York. Berg Publishers.
• Eicher, J. B. and Ross, Doran, (Eds.) (2010). Volume 1, Africa, Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion.[12] New York: Oxford University Press.
• Eicher, J.B. Editor-in-Chief, (2010). Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion[12] (10 vols). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Luvaas, B. and Eicher, J.B. (Eds.) (2019). The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader, London and New York: Bloomsbury.
• Eicher, J.B. (Ed.) (2022). Global Trade and Cultural Authentication: The Kalabari of the Niger Delta, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Selected Awards and Honors

Source:[11]

• 1989: Fellow, International Textile and Apparel Association
• 2003: Honorary Doctorate (Doctor of Humane Letters), Iowa State University
• 2004: Leadership Award, Arts Council of African Studies Association
• 2007: Ada Comstock Distinguished Woman's Faculty Award/Lecturer, University of Minnesota
• 2009: Fellow, Costume Society of America
• 2012: Distinguished Alumni Award, College of Social Science, Michigan State University

Papers

The Joanne B. Eicher papers are at the University of Minnesota Archives, under Collection Identifier ua2005-0028.[2][13]

External links

• The full text of papers written by Eicher is available here.

References

1. "Collections Online | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org.
2. "Collection: Joanne B. Eicher papers | University of Minnesota Archival Collections Guides". archives.lib.umn.edu.
3. "Someone Else | "One Foot After Another": How Joanne Eicher Changed the Meaning of Clothing". someone-else.us.
4. Aronson, Lisa (2017). "Joanne Bubolz Eicher: Trailblazer in the Field of African Textiles, Dress, and Fashion". African Arts. 50 (3): 38–47. doi:10.1162/AFAR_a_00356. JSTOR 48547418. S2CID 57566701. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
5. "Fashion has a bright future". The Age, page 16. September 10, 1982 – via Google Books.
6. "Dr. Joanne B. Eicher". Digital Conservancy. University of Minnesota. 2014. hdl:11299/155886.
7. Staff Writer. "T-TALK: Volumes of style". The Tuscaloosa News.
8. Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel. (1986). Goldstein Gallery Collections. St. Paul, MN: Goldstein Gallery, University of Minnesota.
9. ""Clothing expert to talk at UI Friday"". Lewiston Morning Tribune. September 24, 2003. p. 4C – via Google Books.
10. ""The Display of Skin from Africa to the Academy Awards," Margaret Ritchie Distinguished Speaker, Family and Consumer Sciences, U of Idaho, September, 2003". Experts@Minnesota.
11. "Joanne B. Eicher | College of Design". design.umn.edu.
12. "Every week should be fashion week!". OUPblog. September 15, 2010.
13. "University Archives | University of Minnesota Libraries". www.lib.umn.edu. September 7, 2023.