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

该项目通过重点关注与蓝色和印染工业有关的贫困、社会排斥和环境退化的交叉点，正视了这条道路上的重大挑战。近年来，时尚业对环境和社会的影响一直是一个紧迫的问题，尤其是在南印度等地区，这些地区历来为服装业提供原材料和劳动力。通过社会科学和历史方法的创新结合，该项目将追溯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，与这条道路相关的是，该项目通过询问可以从尽管工业化压力下证明具有弹性的工艺传统中学到什么，为那些从事印染历史工作的人提供了创造更宜居未来的见解。通过其民族志和历史探索，该项目将跨学科创新与真正的影响潜力结合在一起，探索地区手工艺传统是否提供了工业生产的蓝宝石的可持续替代方案。

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.