Professor receives honor for book

Professor Pravina Shukla received an award after spending 12 years working on a book that examines the role of clothing in Indian culture.

Shukla, an associate professor of folklore and ethnomusicology, is the recipient of the 2009 Millia Davenport Publication Award given out by the Costume Society of America for her work, “The Grace of Four Moons: Dress, Adornment, and the Art of the Body in Modern India.”

The Davenport Publication Award, named to honor Millia Davenport, a well-known costume scholar and theater designer, annually recognizes a publication that creates a noteworthy contribution to the study of
costume.  

“She was chosen for her quality of writing, creativity and use of illustrations,” said Kristina Haugland, chair of the Davenport Award Committee.

The 498-page book was no easy task to complete, as illustrated by the abundant bibliography found in the back of “The Grace of Four Moons.”

The ideas for the book began blooming in 1996 when Shukla was completing her doctorate in folklore at UCLA. Shukla visited Banaras, India to conduct research for her dissertation.

“I focused primarily on the role of women’s jewelry in Indian culture, but this book is much broader,” she said.

Fascinated by her findings, Shukla continued to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in the same subject and went back to Banaras in 2001 and 2003.

While there, Shukla spent a lot of her time conducting interviews and observing how people in the region communicate through their clothing.

Through both images and observations, “The Grace of Four Moons” presents numerous examples of the role of clothing as a means of communication, such as how Indian women communicate through the bangles they wear and how it reflects everything from their socio-economic class to their family.

Although Shukla said India is poverty-ridden and women are sometimes portrayed as victims in the society, she chose to highlight a different aspect.

“I wanted to show how the women there do the best with what they have, because that is what is worth celebrating,” she said.

Shukla’s passion for folklore extends into the classroom as well. She teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in folklore, including “Introduction to Folklore in the United States.”

Michael Foster, a fellow colleague, praises for Shukla and her work.

“She is a very passionate teacher and a caring person,” he said. “I was very grateful, as she was a wonderful mentor to me when I first started here at Indiana last year.”

Shukla said she plans to continue writing about the subject she loves.

“I’m studying costume,” she said. “I have been researching for the past two years ever since I finished with ‘The Grace of Four Moons,’ and now I am in the middle of writing my second book.”