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Patricia Williams
For almost 20 years, Patricia Williams has been a part of the evolving UWSP curriculum
in interior design/ fashion merchandising/ retail studies. Now a tenured full professor, Pat began by providing
special expertise in textiles and fashion merchandising and created the Historic Costume Collection.
Her expertise has expanded to the world of international design, a field in which she is internationally
published and for which she frequently gives scholarly papers. Her specialty is the historical/cultural aspects
of design and symbolism in design. From this background she pioneered UWSP courses in the cultural aspects of
applied design in the non-western world (IA 150) and minority culture design in the U.S (IA 160) both of which
have record enrollments. She is affiliated with the Costume of Society of America (CSA), the Textile Society
of America (TSA), the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS), and the Midwest Sociological
Society (MSS).
Patricia Williams, IA, has received a $6,000 grant from the UW System Institute for Global Studies to develop
visual course materials for two interior architecture courses in a shared image database with UW-Madison. Pat
has also been named the CPS Teacher-Scholar for 2001-02. Her project is developing an illustrated vocabulary
for the decorative arts of the Far East, a collaborative database project with UW-Madison. Pat also co-authored
in the book Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs about Protection and Fertility, a collection of essays
published by Berg, Oxford, England. The book received honorable mention for the Katherine Briggs Folklore Prize
from the British Folklore Society. It was nominated for the Millia Davenport Award by the Costume Society of
America and for the R.L. Shep Award by the Textile Society of America. One of nine authors, Williams specializes
in the study of textiles and the decorative arts of various cultures. Her chapter, �Protection From Harm: The
Shawl and Cap in Czech and Slovak Wedding, Birthing and Funerary Rites,� examines how the cap and shawl are used
symbolically by Slovak and Czech women.
As part of her sabbatical study of Non-Western Design, Pat traveled to Morocco in June of 2000. Her travels took
her to the Imperial cities (Rabat, Casablanca, Fez, and Meknes) and many oasis towns and Berber villages. The
city of Rabat is a center of the Islamic carpet-making tradition in Morocco, with outlying areas producing Berber
and Arab tribal carpet designs. Sand was everywhere, including in the seams of your clothes. It was necessary
to stay covered as much as possible when traveling in the Erg Chebbi (the shifting sands of Morocco) and Hamada
(gravel and scrub desert) as Pat has done in the photograph.
The second part of her sabbatical study took Pat to Indonesia in 2001. Here she was able to compare another phase
of the Islamic design tradition, thus exploring Islamic design influence from its farthest western manifestation
in Morocco to its easternmost expression in Indonesia. She was also able to study vernacular architecture
close-up, staying in a Batak tribal longhouse overnight in Sumatra. Other Indonesian stops included Java and Bali
where internationally acclaimed textiles and crafts are produced. Pat will be traveling again in May, leading a
UWSP study tour to China. It will be her third trip there.
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