Modern Science and Natural Indigo: Uncovering Marginalized Craft Practices and Resisting Colonial Histories

该项目通过关注与靛蓝和印染行业相关的贫困、社会排斥和环境退化的交叉点，直接解决了这条道路的巨大挑战。近年来，时尚业对环境和社会的影响一直是一个迫切关注的问题，尤其是在南印度等历史上为服装业提供原材料和劳动力的地区。通过社会科学和历史方法的创新结合，该项目将追踪染色基础设施的出现和演变，以及这些基础设施如何与殖民历史、社会不平等和有毒环境影响纠缠在一起。更重要的是，该项目为那些从事染色历史的人创造更宜居的未来提供了见解，通过询问可以从工业化压力下证明具有弹性的工艺传统中学到什么。通过对地区工艺传统是否为工业生产的靛蓝提供可持续替代品的民族志和历史探索，该项目将跨学科创新与真正的影响潜力结合起来。

The project squarely addresses the grand challengesof the pathway through its focus on the intersection of poverty, socialexclusion and environmental degradation in relation to indigo and thedyeing industry. The environmental and social impact of the fashionindustry has been an urgent concern in recent years, particularly in regions- such as South India - that have historically supplied both raw materialsand labour for the garment industry. Through its innovative combination ofsocial scientific and historical methods, the project will trace the emergenceand evolution of dyeing infrastructures and how these infrastructures areentangled with colonial histories, social inequalities, and toxicenvironmental impacts. Still more importantly - and pertinently to thepathway - the project offers insights into creating more liveable futures forthose working in the dyeing history, by asking what can be learned fromcraft traditions that have proven resilient despite the pressure ofindustrialization. Through its ethnographic and historical exploration ofwhether regional craft traditions offer sustainable alternatives toindustrially-produced indigo, the project combines interdisciplinaryinnovation with real impact potential.