Graduate and Undergraduate courses
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Lecturer. World Arts and Culture
Spring quarter, 2023 Textile Color and Culture (Grad/undergrad)
Fall quarter, 2022 Understanding World Textiles (Grad/undergrad)
Spring quarter, 2022 Adv. Seminar: Andean Textile Techniques: (Grad/Undergrad)
Fall quarter, 2021 Textile Traditions of Mexico (Grad/undergrad)
Spring quarter, 2021 Understanding World Textiles (Grad/undergrad) [virtual]
Spring quarter,2020 Textiles Color and Culture. (Grad/undergrad) [virtual]
Fall quarter, 2019 Advanced Seminar: Andean Textile Techniques (Grad/Undergrad)
Winter quarter, 2019 Understanding World Textiles
Spring quarter, 2018 Advanced Seminar: Aymara Textiles
Winter quarter, 2018 Understanding World Textiles
Spring quarter, 2017 Advanced Seminar: Andean Textile Techniques
Fall quarter, 2016 Understanding World Textiles
Fall quarter, 2015. Textile Traditions of the Andes.
Spring quarter, 2015. Understanding World Textiles
Fall quarter, 2014. Textiles Color and Culture.
Fall quarter, 2013. Precolumbian Textile Traditions.
Fall quarter, 2011. Textiles of the Inca Empire. .
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)/Getty Conservation Institute, Adjunct Professor.
Spring quarter, 2017. Graduate 10-week course: Textile Conservation of
Archaeological and Ethnographic Textiles.
Spring quarter, 2012. Graduate 10-week course: Textile Conservation of
Archaeological and Ethnographic Textiles
Special Workshops,
Art Institute of Chicago:
Scholar’s Workshop: Technical Mastery of Nasca Textiles. June 13, 2019
“Public Drop-in Workshop”: Understanding Nazca Textiles. June 14, 2019. approx. 100 participants.
https://www.artic.edu/events/4497/drop-in-workshop-understanding-nazca-textiles
Foundation for American Institute of Conservtion Workshop on Analysis of Museum Textiles:
Complex structures April 8-10, 2019. Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation and the Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. https://www.iiconservation.org/node/7728
Non-woven structures Oct 8-10, 2018. Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation and the Textile Museum, Washington, D.C.
Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium, Lincoln, Nebraska. Natural Dye Workshop (with Dominique Cardon). October, 2010 (one-day workshop).
Recent Teaching
Research Projects
Current research projects include:
Weaving Brilliance: Andean Textile Techniques and the Formation of Color and Luminescence in the 16th-19th c. [2008- ongoing]
This project examines the methods that Andean weavers use to create textiles of brilliance and sheen, in part through the documentation of techniques such as tornesol that affect perception of color, through spinning, weaving and dyeing. Papers related to this project have been presented in 2010 Villa i Tati (published in Colors Between Two Worlds (G. Wolf and J. Connors, eds. ) 2015 Materiality Conference, Buenos Aires (with forthcoming publication expected 2018); 2016 SAA Conference; 2017 Paper for a Spanish Publication expected 2018.
Silk in the Americas [2010- ongoing]
Silk, a luxurious fiber prized by many cultures, found its way into the Americas via galleon trade from Asia and Europe. Attempts to cultivate silkworms in Mexico and Peru began as early as the 16th century and its impact on the region is visible in the silk textiles from various cultures, as well as those made with local materials. Grants from the Asian Cultural Council (2010) and the American Philosophical Society (2011) enabled travel to Western China to observe contemporary silk practices as well as archaeological examples and to the the Archivo de las Indias in Seville, Spain to study documents pertaining to its use and trade in the region. Papers related to this research have been presented at the Textile Society of America, in Los Angeles, 2014 (published 2015), published in the A. Peck, ed. Interwoven Globe (MMA 2015); and forthcoming presentation for SHOT (Society for History of Technology), in Philadelphia, 2017.
This project also links to the SILK ROAD project organized by Peter Sellars, Boethius Initiative and Susan Pertel Jain, UCLA Confucius Institute. (2016- ongoing)
Jim Bassler, Thread by Thread (2017- ongoing)
This project investigates the California textile artist Jim Bassler (b.1933) whose work and life has been influenced through his love and appreciation of global textile traditions, notably those from Latin America.