“Crafting is a luxury that many women cannot afford”: campus knitivism and an aesthetic of civic engagement

Abstract

This paper examines the activities of the Penn State Knitivism Club, in which small groups of students come together to knit in public spaces, as a form of creative resistance. In framing campus knitivism as “an aesthetic of civic engagement” we consider the complexities of becoming resistant and the implications of those complexities for relational theories of curriculum and pedagogy.

Keywords:

• youth
• activism
• knitting

Notes

1. Penn State is a multi-campus land grant public research University. The knitivism club activities took place on the main University Park campus. According to the Penn State Fact Book, student demographics as of 2006 were: 82.8% white, 5.4% African-American, 4.6% Asian-American, 2.9% Hispanic-American, 0.2% Native American, and 4.2% international students. Penn State Fact Book. University Budget Office. Penn State University. http://www.budget.psu.edu/FactBook/StudentDynamic/MinorityEnrolbyEthnicity.asp?TableCount=3&ReportCode=P&YearCode=2006Enr (accessed February 2011). Knitivism club members were reflected in this demographic with the majority being white undergraduate students.