The Textile Society of America is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 Research Travel Grant: Sonthia Coleman and Maggy Fragoso. These accomplished researchers are undertaking significant projects that document, preserve, and share textile knowledge rooted in cultural heritage, community practice, and historical inquiry.
Drawing on her own multicultural heritage, Sonthia Coleman will conduct research in museum collections, including the Louisiana State Museum, The Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture. She will also interview practicing textile artists, quilters, weavers, and craftspeople to document techniques, stories, and traditions that remain underrepresented in the historical record.
Through this work, Coleman seeks to identify and document points of cultural exchange and influence among these communities, preserving knowledge that is increasingly at risk of being lost. Her findings will contribute to educational resources, digital archives, and curriculum development for Fashion x Tech New Orleans, while demonstrating how traditional textile knowledge can inform contemporary sustainable design and manufacturing practices.
Coleman plans to share her research through articles in her Fashion Tech Code and Opulence Brief publications, digital archives shared with cultural organizations, and community-based programming designed to connect textile heritage with innovation and entrepreneurship.
Building on fieldwork conducted in Cabo Verde in 2025, Maggy Fragoso will travel to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau to collaborate with contemporary weavers and artisans, including Manjak, Papel, and Tukulor practitioners. Through interviews, documentation, and technical analysis, she will investigate the shared influences and cultural exchanges that contributed to the distinctive patterns and weaving structures found in historical Cabo Verdean textiles.
A central focus of the project is documenting knowledge held by elder weavers and craftspeople whose expertise may otherwise be lost. Fragoso’s research will deepen understanding of the relationships between textile traditions in Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and the broader West African region while contributing to the preservation of important weaving knowledge and cultural histories.
The findings from this research will support Fragoso’s forthcoming book, Slave Bodies, Inventive Minds and the Power of the Panos Ricos from Cabo Verde, as well as scholarly articles exploring historical textile production, design influences, and the development of the Cabo Verdean hybrid loom.
Both grantees exemplify TSA’s mission to foster ethical, community-engaged textile research. Their projects preserve textile knowledge, elevate underrepresented histories, and strengthen connections between scholarship, cultural heritage, and contemporary practice.
This year, TSA received 50 applications for the Research Travel Grant. Each submission was carefully reviewed by a dedicated committee of TSA Board and Committee Volunteers. We are grateful to all applicants for their thoughtful proposals and inspired by the breadth and diversity of textile research being conducted around the world.
The next round of Research Travel Grant applications will open on January 25, 2027.
Want to support more groundbreaking textile research? TSA’s grants empower scholars like Sonthia and Maggy to document endangered traditions, preserve cultural knowledge, and share new discoveries with communities around the world. Please consider contributing to this and other scholarship and financial award programs that advance TSA’s mission and support textile researchers, artists, and practitioners worldwide.
Learn how you can contribute:
https://textilesocietyofamerica.org/programs/awards-scholarships/research-travel-grant
2026 Research Travel Grant Recipient Bios
Sonthia Coleman, a cultural architect, textile innovation strategist, and Founder & CEO of MVN Tech Group, will use the grant to support Woven Convergence: Documenting Multicultural Textile Traditions of the Gulf South. Her research explores the intersections of Indigenous (Choctaw and Cherokee), African American, and Spanish-Canarian (Los Isleños) textile traditions across Louisiana and Texas.
Maggy Fragoso, an independent scholar, weaver, and author of Cabo Verdean origin, will use the grant to advance research on the historical textile traditions of Cabo Verde and their connections to neighboring regions of West Africa. Her work examines the weaving techniques, dyeing practices, loom technologies, and design influences that shaped the development of Cabo Verdean textiles during the era of the transatlantic slave trade.
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