Final Oral Dissertation Defense: PhD Candidate, Elif Kavakci

We are pleased to announce the final oral dissertation defense of PhD Candidate, Elif Kavakci on Monday, April 13th @ 12:00pm to 3:00pm at McClelland Park Building, Room 402. The first hour of the event is open to the public ONLY.

This dissertation examines modest sportswear as a design and cultural field where faith-based embodiment, athletic performance, aesthetics, and digital visibility converge. Addressing a methodological and epistemic gap in modest fashion scholarship—particularly the absence of autoethnographic and designer-centered research on modest sportswear—I foreground lived experience and design practice to theorize how hijabi women negotiate modesty in motion and how inclusive sportswear can be more authentically developed and communicated. In the original research presented below, I examine: (1a) how I, as a hijabi modest fashion designer and consumer, define and prioritize coverage, functionality, and aesthetics in sportswear and (1b) how these design priorities compare with those articulated by modest fashion consumers, influencers, and brands in digital media; (2) how hijabi habitus is formed, learned, and performed through personal, familial, and engagements with modest fashion and sportswear; and (3) how mainstream sportswear brands can frame their design and marketing narratives around modest sportswear in ways that build cultural relevance and trust.
 

Drawing on Bourdieu’s (1977) theory of practice, sartorial sociology, and embodiment frameworks, I employ analytic autoethnography as the primary method and integrate digital ethnography and visual analysis to situate personal insights within broader platform-based representations and consumer discourse. The findings show that modest dress is dynamic and context-dependent, demonstrating how hijabi habitus is continually recalibrated across micro-decisions made as modesty is navigated through the elements of movement, visibility, spatial transitions, and material constraints. The dissertation argues that inclusive modest sportswear
cannot be achieved through representational inclusion alone but requires structurally collaborative design approaches grounded in hijabi habitus and the spatial and contextual negotiation of modesty across everyday situations.

The study theorizes hijabi habitus as a conceptual framework for understanding faith-based embodiment in athletic and fashion contexts and introduces hijab-centered design as a lived and practice-informed approach to inclusive modest sportswear. Collectively, these contributions position modest sportswear as a site where embodied religious practice, material design, and spatial negotiation intersect. This research contributes to fashion studies, design studies, modest fashion scholarship, the sociology of dress, media and cultural studies, and qualitative methodology by offering an embodied framework for theorizing and designing inclusive modest sportswear.

About the Researcher:

 Elif Kavakcı is a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Intercultural Arts Research (AIAR) and an Associate Professor of Practice and Program Chair for Fashion Industry’s Science and Technology at the Norton School of Human Ecology, University of Arizona. Her scholarship explores modest sportswear and inclusive design practices, drawing on analytic autoethnography and digital ethnography to examine how Muslim women negotiate modesty in athletic and fashion contexts.