Hanan K. Munayyer is a molecular biologist and worked for three decades in pharmaceutical research in NJ. She is president and co-founded, with her husband Farah, the Palestinian Heritage Foundation, 25 years ago, to preserve and exhibit their comprehensive collection of Palestinian costumes, jewelry and other artifacts, one of the largest in the world. She has researched for 25 years the origins of textile arts in the Arab world, and how it relates to Palestinian costume and embroidery and has lectured on the subject in numerous universities and museums. She has also designed and curated numerous exhibits of their Palestinian costume collection in museums. She is the author of the book, Traditional Palestinian Costume, which was awarded the Book of the Year for 2011 by ForeWord Reviews. Using museum photography of early embroideries from the Arab world and Europe, the lecture will focus on the origins of Palestinian costume and embroidery, including headdresses and jewelry, beginning from antiquity to the present. Special attention is given to patterns and specific styles of historical importance, and also the influence of Arab textile arts and costume on medieval European costume and embroidery, as specified in Western sources. High resolution photography of some of the embroideries will be included in the lecture.
Eugenia Paulicelli, Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Concentration in Fashion Studies at the Graduate Center, CUNY, will offer comments and moderate.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 6.30-8.30 PM
Room C197, The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street
New York, NY 10016
