Nancy J. Nelson Hodges

Nancy Nelson Hodges is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Dr. Hodges’ areas of interest are the contextual factors of dress, including dress in culture, society, and history, the social psychology of dress and apparel consumption, and the production of knowledge within the clothing and textiles field. Dr. Hodges’ research focuses on gender as related to dress and the experiences of women. She is currently working on a second, five-year project funded by the NC Agricultural Research Service on the changing workforce of North Carolina’s textile sector, and specifically the link between women, employment and education for the apparel and textile industries. She is also the Project Director and Co-PI of a three year USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant. The project will result in the creation of learning modules designed to introduce global industry-based issues and opportunities in the undergraduate consumer, apparel and retail classroom. Hodges has published her research in several top academic journals in the field, including the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal and the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management. She has also published in the Women’s Studies International Forum and the International Journal of Gender and Sexuality. She has presented her research at numerous juried national and international conferences in the US and Europe where she has received awards for her research. She has been a member of the Executive Board of the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) and served as the Vice President for Planning for ITAA from 2005-2007. Hodges has also served on the Editorial Board for the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal and is presently on the Advisory Board of the new journal Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process and the Fashion Industry. Dr. Hodges earned her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and has been at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro since 1998. She teaches undergraduate courses on the cultural, historical, and social psychological factors of dress, and graduate courses on qualitative methodology, literature and thought, consumer research, and dress and identity. She was awarded the Mary Francis Stone School of Human Environmental Sciences award for Outstanding Teaching in 2003.

There are 20 included publications by Nancy J. Nelson Hodges :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
The Competitive Position of Thailand’s Apparel Industry: Challenges and Opportunities for Globalization 2010 4125 Purpose – Recent liberalization of the world's textile and apparel trade policies and the consequent changes in trade patterns posited threats to smaller textile- and apparel-exporting nations, including Thailand. Thus it is important to understand h...
Constructing Knowledge for the Future: Exploring Alternative Modes of Inquiry from a Philosophical Perspective 2007 421 Clothing and textiles research is examined within a futuring framework to discuss potential avenues for development of thought within the field. A philosophical perspective linking ontology, epistemology, and methodology is posited as important to ex...
Contemporary Irish textile artists: Exploring experiences of gender, culture, and artistic medium 2002 779 The purpose of this study was to understand what textile art means in Irish culture and society through the lens of women who create it. The methodology used in this study was founded in part on the phenomenological exploration of meaning within live...
Cross-dressers in Cyberspace: Exploring the internet as a tool for expressing gendered identities 2002 1607 The authors explore the ways in which the Internet functions to communicate about cross-dressing as part of a larger cultural discourse surrounding gender. As a widely used tool to dialogue on the topic of appearance, the Internet also helps to estab...
Employment in the U.S. Textile and Apparel Industries: A Comparative Analysis of Regional vs. National Trends 2006 1755 Purpose – To examine the impact of changes in the US textile and apparel industries on employment patterns at the state level compared with the nation as a whole during the period of 1997-2003. Design/methodology/approach – Secondary data sources wer...
Encouraging critical thinking in the classroom: An example from Aesthetics 1997 904 This paper illustrates how critical thinking techniques could be used in teaching aesthetics. Exploring unfamiliar territory and moving freely between reflective and active thought processes are components important to both aesthetics and critical th...
Exploring Consumers’ Adoption of Highly Technological Fashion Products: The Role of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivational Factors 2010 1167 Purpose – This study seeks to develop and test a model of consumers' adoption of highly technological fashion products (HTFPs) through modifying the technology acceptance model (TAM). Design/methodology/approach – Using a convenience sampling method...
Focused Issue on the Future: Introduction to Part I 2007 363 As we move toward the second decade of the 21st century, the timing seems pertinent to take a focused look at the future. In the second issue of its second volume in 1984, the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal (CTRJ) published a future-focused i...
Focused Issue on the Future: Introduction to Part II 2008 380 How will we dress in the future? How will we teach in the future? How will we design in the future? A special focused issue on the future in a field such as ours necessarily encompasses a broad range of approaches to the concept of ?futuring.? In thi...
Global products, global markets: Jeans in Korea and the United States 2002 1165 This cross-cultural study illustrates how products selected for their basic similarities are distinguished in use by cultural context. Jeans, a product manufactured in both South Korea and the United States, were selected as the research stimuli. Sub...
Implications of an educational intervention program designed to increase young adolescents’ awareness of hats for sun protection 1999 458 This research examined the content and outcome of an educational intervention program designed to foster sun protective awareness and behaviors among young adolescents. Awareness of sun protection qualities, as well as preferences and stated intentio...
Jeans: A comparison of perceptions of meaning in Korea and the United States 1998 1769 The focus of this research was to determine what similarities or differences in meaning develop when one product, blue jeans, developed in one culture, is used in another. Students’ perceptions of blue jeans in the United States and Korea were the fo...
Listening to Jane Cunningham Croly’s “Talks With Women”: Issues of dress and gender in Demorest’s Monthly Magazine 2000 740 This paper explores how popular women’s magazines promoted change in women’s roles and reform in dress during the nineteenth century. Selected writings about women and dress for Demorest’s Monthly Magazine by its editor, Jane Cunningham Croly, are ex...
Majoring in Fashion: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding the Decision-Making Process 2010 793 Choosing a college major can be a complex decision and one that has the potential to determine an individual's professional future. The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical framework for mapping the decision-making process. Grounded in ...
Making a Major Decision: An Exploration of Why Students Enroll in Fashion Programmes 2009 411 Much like deciding where to go to college, for many students, deciding what to major in is a complex, multi-dimensional process wherein several different variables may influence the final decision. Understanding the motivations behind the decision to...
Making sense of the market: An exploration of apparel consumption practices of the Russian consumer 2007 1657 Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine and interpret post-socialist consumer experiences in relation to clothing consumption practices when consumers shop, acquire, and wear clothing and other fashion-related products. Design/methodology/a...
More than just a ‘little hobby’: Women and textile art in Ireland 2005 979 In this article, interviews with 25 contemporary Irish women textile artists form the basis of an exploration of women’s experiences with creative expression. An interpretive framework that highlights key socio-cultural and gender issues is used to c...
Response to activewear apparel advertisements by US Baby Boomers: An exploration of cognitive versus chronological age factors 2008 1297 Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of cognitive- versus chronological-age factors in activewear apparel advertisements targeting female baby boomers in the USA. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 50 female particip...
A Tale of Two Industries: An Interpretive Analysis of Media Reports on Textiles and Apparel in North Carolina 2008 491 This qualitative study explores recent textile and apparel industry dynamics from the point of view of the news media to understand how such dynamics are presented to the general public. North Carolina, having been home to many jobs in these industri...
US textile sector job loss: An exploration of implications for individuals, community, and industry 2010 770 Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of displaced female textile sector workers. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach to data collection and interpretation forms the methodological basis of the study. In-...