The 2016 Textile Society of America Symposium theme, “Crosscurrents: Land, Labor and the Port,” is focused on exploring the ways in which textiles shape, and are shaped by, geographical, technological, and economic aspects of global dynamics. The Southern US is a good place to invite work addressing the impact of local practices on global markets (and vice-versa) in tracking relationships between historical practices and broader contexts of agriculture, labor, innovation, and exchange. In addition to its historic evocations, the theme invites conversation about contemporary impacts of high and low technology, regionally centered outsourcing, craft-aid movements, fair trade practices, and the continued role of grassroots entrepreneurs in the global market on the design, production, circulation, consumption, interpretation, and use of textiles.
Save the Date for TSA’s 15th Biennial Symposium
