Call for Papers | School uniforms, dress codes and public responses: from museums to policy makers | 20th November 2024

School uniforms, dress codes and public responses: from museums to policy makers

Location: this is a hybrid conference both at the University of Aberdeen and online Date: 20th November 2024
Cost: Free
Organisers:
Dr Aude Campbell Le Guennec, Reader in Design Anthropology, The Glasgow School of Art Dr Rachel Shanks, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Aberdeen Cr.)

As revealed in the research published by R. Shanks et al. (eds.) and A. Campbell Le Guennec and N. Coutant (eds.), school uniform continues to be a hot topic in the 2020s across the world. In France, school uniform is presented as a way of securing the secular nature of school education and reinstating a sense of educational authority. In the UK school uniform is presented as a way to mask income differences by providing a level playing field and thus preventing competition and bullying as well as creating a sense of belonging to the school.

“Dressed for School” gathered lived experiences and contributions from young people, educators and the fashion industry to document and create new ways of thinking about clothing culture at school.
Furthermore, this exhibition demonstrated the importance of the work of anthropologists and sociologists to advance the understanding of the mechanisms of uniformisation at school. This research conveys the voice of young people to inform their approach to this dress code and reflects on the ways it is framed by public and school policies as well as on the impact uniforms have on young people and their preparation for adulthood.