Join the Textile Society of America for a one-hour virtual conversation with Andrew James Hamilton, winner of the 2025 R. L. Shep Memorial Book Award for The Royal Inca Tunic: A Biography of an Andean Masterpiece (Princeton University Press, 2024).
Hamilton will discuss the creation, meaning, and afterlives of one of the most celebrated Andean textiles in the world—the five-hundred-year-old uncu. Drawing on a decade of research, his book sheds light on the tunic’s manufacture, its likely makers, and its cultural significance during the final days of the Inca Empire.
He will be joined by the 2025 R. L. Shep Memorial Book Award Committee—Dr. Julia Hendon, Dr. Kaja McGowan, and Dr. Florina Capistrano-Baker (Chair) and audience Q&A. Together, they will explore the book’s scholarship, its connection to Shep’s legacy, and the broader intersections of textile studies, cultural heritage, and art history.
