Craft Activism: Collaborative crafting as activism, the search for justice & the creation of emotional objects’

Craft Activism: Collaborative crafting as activism, the search for justice & the creation of emotional objects’

This event explores crafting as a form of activism by setting it in its historical, social, and gendered context. Speakers will piece together the ways in which craft gives the powerless a voice to seek justice, to publicise injustice, memorialise victims, create identities, and work through different emotional states. As well as investigating craftivism through time and place, collaborative crafters and their creations will be analysed to understand their power and legacy.

Two quilts and a textile panel will be exhibited as a focus for the day’s talks.

Speakers/exhibitors include:

Dr Richard Huggins, Principal Lecturer in Criminology, sociology and politics, Oxford Brookes University

Professor Joanne Begiato, historian of emotions, material culture and gender, Oxford Brookes University

Dr Sally Holloway, historian of emotions and material culture in Britain, Oxford Brookes University

Roxanne Ellis, Labour & Cooperative Councillor, founder of The Women’s Quilt

Professor Janet Read, expert on the human rights of disabled children and adults and their families

Dr Karen Nikkell, Visual Artist and lecturer on the history and theory of textiles

Dr Bridget Long, historian of textiles, domestic needlework and patchwork in Britain

Claire Goodall, Artist and Tutor with The Workers Educational Association

Booking essential at https://www.brookes.ac.uk/think-human/whats-on/
This event is part of Think Human Festival which showcases the exciting and relevant work of Oxford Brookes University’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Think Human events are designed to share teaching and research to demonstrate the value and significance of the humanities and social sciences for everyone. A full programme of free talks, debates, activities, and performances covering topics as diverse and divisive as Brexit, criminality in the internet age, protest songs, and craft-activism can be found online!