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THREADS OF EMPIRE: MODES, MATERIALS AND THE MAKING OF TEXTILES
Commodities of Empire Workshop, University of Glasgow
8-9 September 2025
The British Academy ‘Commodities of Empire’ Academy Research Project is holding an international, two-day workshop on the theme: Threads of Empire: Modes, Materials & the Making of Textiles. The workshop is being hosted at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) on 8-9 September, 2025. The lead organisers are Dr Jelmer Vos (Jelmer.Vos@glasgow.ac.uk), Dr Sally Tuckett (Sally.Tuckett@glasgow.ac.uk) and Dr Meha Priyadarshini (meha.priyadarshini@ed.ac.uk).
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The significance of textiles as global and colonial commodities from c.1450-1850 is well established, with cotton and silk providing particularly cogent lenses through which to consider the movement of goods, fashion and technology, as well as means by which colonial connections and systems were initially established and evolved.
Threads of Empire is an international workshop where new and emerging research can examine how textiles built, supported and challenged empires. When thinking about textiles and empire the emphasis has often been on the role of the metropole as driver of trade, exchange and innovation. This workshop will shift the focus to the perspective of the colonised populations. What can the materials, making, movement and use of textiles within, across and between colonial systems add to our understanding of the wider role that textiles played from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Highlighting the inherently interdisciplinary nature of textiles and textile history, the workshop encourages proposals that explore textiles from a range of perspectives, including economic and social history, global history, colonial and post-colonial studies, cultural history, art history and conservation science.
The following papers are being presented:
· Panel 1 – Making and Meaning of Textiles in Latin America: Paula Fons, ‘Labour competition and the decline of the silk industry in New Spain, 1550-1650’; Laura Beltran-Rubio, ‘Indigenizing the northern Andean world of textiles’; Annahcelestya Sánchez, ‘Weaving Nationality: The Rebozo from 1519-1850’; Tiago Gil, ‘The Spinnerse of Vale do Paraiba and Collective Manufacturing in Sao Paulo Captaincy (1780-1820)’. Discussant: David Pretel.
· Panel 2 – Materials and Objects: Ruth Egger, ‘From the Tree onto the Body and into the Chamber: Collecting and Reintepreting Palm Fibre Textiles from West Central Africa in the European Kunstkammer, c.1550-1750′; Pragya Sharma, ’19th Century Indian Hand-knitted Gloves and Slippers: Tracing Provenance and Style Diffusion’. Discussant: Sally Tuckett.
· Panel 3 – Cultures of Consumption: Juan Carlos González Balderas, ‘Illicit Chinese Silks Influencing Lima’s 18th-century Wardrobes’; Emma Pearce, ‘Plaid and other Fancy Ginghams: Circulations, Sellers and Consumers of Tartan, Madras and other Checked Textiles in Caribbean Markets’; Stephanie Coo, ‘Comfort Zone? Clothing, Culture, and Colonialism in Nineteenth-century Philippines’. Discussant: Meha Priyadarshini.
· Panel 4 – Cloth Production in Africa: William Clarence-Smith, ‘Cloth production in sub-Saharan Africa: adaptation since c.1500 CE’; Sarah Van Beurden, ‘Congolese Lace: A History of Craft, Gender and Worldmaking’; Williams Orukpe, ‘Cloth weaving domination, de-womanisation and decolonisation in Esanland’. Discussant: Jelmer Vos.
On Monday, 8 September, there will also be a double book launch, at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, for two recently published books by the two organisers of the workshop:
Sally Tuckett, Transatlantic Threads: Scottish Linen and Society, c.1707-1780 (discussant Prof. Andrew MacKillop, University of Glasgow)
Jelmer Vos, Coffee and Colonialism in Angola, 1820-1960 (discussant Prof. William Clarence-Smith, School of Oriental and African Studies)
Please contact Dr Jelmer Vos (Jelmer.Vos@glasgow.ac.uk) for questions.
