Convener(s): Dartmouth College
Speakers: Karuna Dietrich Wielenga (CSASP Research Associate); Prasannan Parthasarathi (History, Boston College); Maxine Berg (History, University of Warwick).
What can the history of South India’s handloom industry tell us about economic history? How did changes in growing,
cleaning, spinning, and weaving cotton shape this history? And how did local, regional, national, and global forces affect the lives of ordinary weavers?
Using an expansive array of sources — textual, material, and agricultura l— Karuna Dietrich Wielenga’s new book, Weaving Histories: The Transformation of the Handloom Industry in South India 1800–1960, addresses these questions. Join us for a bonus event in the Conversations on South Asia series to hear more!
Prasannan Parthasarathi (History, Boston College) and Maxine Berg (History, University of Warwick) will join the
conversation as discussants. Elizabeth Lhost (History, Society of Fellows, Dartmouth College) will moderate.
