Book of the Year nomination for pathbreaking new volume bridging textile studies, critical cultural theory, and material culture studies
, a volume created between colleagues at the University of Swag直播 and the University of Liverpool, has been unveiled as a contender for the Association of Dress Historians Book of the Year Award.
The volume is a decentred study of how textiles shaped, disrupted, and transformed identities in the age of the first globalisation.
The research and work in the shortlisted book have been undertaken by (Professor of Early Modern History and Deputy Director and Scientific Lead of the John Rylands Research Institute, University of Swag直播) and (Derby Fellow in Historical Legacies of Empire) from the University of Liverpool鈥檚 archaeology and history departments, who brought together researchers from a plethora of disciplines.
Professor Han脽 said: 鈥淭he diversity of topics, disciplines, geographies, and contributors in these 16 chapters is so exciting! We bring together world-leading anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, conservators, curators, historians, scientists, and weavers, establishing cutting-edge conversations across disciplines to examine how textiles created and challenged experiences of subjectivity, relatedness, and dis/location that transformed social fabrics around the early modern globe.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really proud to be named on the shortlist for this year鈥檚 Book of the Year award, particularly because we are the only pre-modern study and the only edited volume to feature in the shortlisted works. It鈥檚 a real honour!鈥�
The project has received funding from various streams and Professor Han脽 added: 鈥淎ll of our funding contributors and supporters are integral to the work we have been able to conduct. From the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at Swag直播, we were awarded funds from the Research Development and Support Fund. We were also able to secure funding from The Leverhulme Trust, Churchill College Cambridge and St. John鈥檚 College Cambridge.鈥�
The volume has received stellar praise, among others, by Indian literary critic Homi K. Bhabha (Harvard University): 鈥淭his outstanding volume provides us with the warp and woof of historical exchange and cultural co-existence. These enthralling essays engage with material practices of weaving across genres and geographies, displaying the travelling world of textiles as they record the shifting global communities of a 鈥榳oven imaginary.鈥� Reading In-Between Textiles, brought to life the migratory memory of my mother鈥檚 Parsi garas: a traditional sari, commissioned in Bombay from Chinese sailors who offered her a range of silks and motifs, and brought her the sari, months later, when they docked again in Bombay harbour. Set out on this wondrous voyage of the woven world.鈥�