Speaker: Sibia Akhtar (Science and Industry Museum)

This session will focus on the work which was done for the Global Threads Public History Project, a collaborative project with the Centre for the Legacies of British Slavery and the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester. The Global Threads Project explored both local and global connections of Manchester’s cotton industry. We aim to create new networks and conversations about Manchester’s textiles heritage, weaving together narratives about lived experience, resistance, solidarity and industrialisation.

Global Threads researcher, Sibia Akhtar, will share her research and experiences of working on the project. She will also reflect on the impact and future of the project and our wider work, exploring questions that push us to think about our research practice as an investment in the future of museums, heritage, culture, and academia.

Sibia Akhtar completed her Master of History in September 2020, funded by a scholarship from the Aziz Foundation. She focused on issues of race and racism in modern Britain and ways to make that history more accessible using public history approaches. Her research with the Global Threads Public History project focuses on retelling the history of Elk Mill as well as the significance of South Asian textiles in shaping leisure activities and political resistance. These stories are often hidden so her work here is to uncover the rich histories in hope that people will learn more about these local stories and their global connections. Sibia currently works as an Associate Curator for the Science and Industry Museum.

IHR Seminar Series: People, Place and Community