The Daily Bulletin Archive

Please join us for the 2019 Women's History Month keynote, "When the Cotton Is High: Social Justice and Textiles," by Chawne Kimber, professor of mathematics at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and an award-winning textile artist, on Tuesday, March 12, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Technology Building 344. Dr. Kimber's talk will address her artistic practice and its connection to United States history as well as to current social issues. A reception will be held in the Rockwell Hall Metcalf Room from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

For centuries, women have used their utilitarian and decorative textile work to express their politics and opinions on issues of the day. This talk will examine some historical examples and some of Dr. Kimber's own work. Her quilts use the lens of identity and difference to confront social conflicts like campus rape culture, Black Lives Matter, and censorship.

Dr. Kimber has exhibited quilts and embroidery in galleries and festivals throughout the country. As a mathematician, she finds connections between her discipline and her work as a textile artist. Her quilts are made in the patchwork style used by her ancestors who were enslaved. Modern Quilting magazine calls Dr. Kimber “a growing force in modern quilting” because of the way she is pushing the art form in innovative and challenging directions. She uses the quilt as a medium to respond to current race-related social justice issues.

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This event is sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Interdisciplinary Unit and the Fashion and Textile Technology Department with the generous support of the Faculty-Student Association.