International Relations and/as Thread-work: A Dialogue on Threads, War, and Conflict

Authors

  • Selena Sharifah Jamalullail Independent Researcher
  • Roberta Bacic Conflict Textiles
  • Lydia Cole Durham University
  • Laura Mills University of St. Andrews

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.1628

Keywords:

textiles, textile exhibition, visual IR, curation, IR methodology, arpilleras

Abstract

This intervention reflects on the opportunities for textile art, and its exhibition and making, to inform our study of conflict, violence, and resistance in International Relations. In a dialogue drawing on the Threads, War and Conflict exhibition at the Byre Theatre, St Andrews, this piece grounds our understanding of violence and its resistance through engagement with materials displayed at and promoting the exhibition. Our discussion of the exhibition and its associated events draws on metaphors of thread-work to explore the contributions of textile to international relations and the possibilities that textiles’ material, affective and transgressive politics hold.

Author Biography

Lydia Cole, Durham University

Lydia is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University. She holds an MA in Human Rights (Law/Political Science) from the University of Manchester and a PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University. Her doctoral research focused on sexual and gender-based violence and post-conflict justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Exploring several key post-conflict frames – the legal, the psychological, and the testimonial – it examined the possibilities and limitations of recognition through such processes. Lydia has also been part of the commissioning team for Stitched Voices, a major art exhibition and associated event programme featuring global conflict and protest textiles. This ongoing project draws upon artistic, performative and practice-based research methodologies to explore knowledge production surrounding political violence. Lydia’s research spans several fields of inquiry including feminist theory, post-conflict and transitional justice, theories of recognition, and human rights.

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Published

2022-01-05

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2021): Contemporary Voices

Section

Openings

License

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