Chancellor Jackman Graduate Fellow
Sanniah Jabeen’s research examines how digital printing, machine replication, and mass production impact modern and contemporary South Asian arts. She has collaborated with UNESCO on craft conservation, heritage preservation, and public arts engagement projects. Additionally, Sanniah completed curatorial fellowships at the Royal Ontario Museum, Islamic Art and Material Culture Collaborative (IAMCC), The Art Museum at the University of Toronto, and the Lahore Biennale Foundation. Her doctoral research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canada.
Fellowship Project: Handmade in the Age of Mass (Re)Production: The Many Lives of Ajrak
Her dissertation investigates how digital printing, mechanical reproduction, and large-scale production affect traditional South Asian textiles, specifically Pakistan's contemporary crafts. She explores artisan communities' adaptive strategies to shifting economic conditions, evolving craft networks, gender dynamics in textile labor, ethnic symbolism, and contested notions of authenticity within handcrafted traditions. A detailed examination of Ajrak—a block-printed and resist-dyed cotton fabric—contrasts its traditional handmade expressions against commodified, globally marketed fashion variants. Through this interplay emerges a questioning of authenticity and reliance, highlighting underlying anxieties about cultural continuity within modern industrialized contexts and the shifting dynamics of cultural representation.