Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance II: Cultural Lives of Clothing and Textiles in Ancient Egypt and Beyond
21–23 April 2027 | Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, Pałac Staszica, Warsaw, Poland
No registration fee | In person presentations | Full venue livestream
We warmly invite participants to the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, where the second instalment of Outward Appearance versus Inward Significance will be held from 21 to 23 April 2027. The inaugural conference, hosted at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) in Chicago, explored how dress communicates identity, affiliation, and social belonging across ancient societies. The Warsaw edition continues this conversation while shifting the focus toward the material and cultural trajectories of garments and textiles in ancient Egypt and its interconnected regions.
Building on the momentum of the Chicago meeting and the recently published ISACS 15 volume, this conference examines how garments participate in ritual performance, everyday practice, social identity formation, and cross-cultural exchange. It also considers the sustainability of textile life cycles, including repair, reuse, and material conservation, as well as the emotional attachments and memories embedded in cloth. Recent scholarship increasingly views clothing as an active cultural agent shaped by craft knowledge, technological innovation, and the embodied experiences of its makers and wearers. Within this broader perspective, particular attention is given to resemanticisation, understood as the transformation of meaning that occurs when garments and textiles shift context, function, or user.
Evidence from Egypt, the Aegean, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Nubia, and other nearby regions provides a rich comparative foundation for exploring how dress traditions develop, transform, and circulate across cultural boundaries. The conference is conceived as an international and multidisciplinary forum that brings together historians of dress, archaeologists, anthropologists, conservators, material scientists, and textile practitioners to investigate the cultural lives of clothing in ancient societies.
Selected papers will be considered for a peer-reviewed conference volume. The programme will also include social events and a guided visit to the National Museum in Warsaw, including Egyptian and Graeco Roman antiquities and the Faras Gallery.
Themes and Topics
We welcome proposals engaging with one or more of the following areas, including but not limited to:
• Ritual garments, sacred cloths, and the significance of colour in performance, ceremony, and burial
• Everyday clothing practices and their role in shaping social identity
• Sustainability and reuse in textile life cycles, including repair, repurposing, and material conservation
• Cross cultural exchanges in textile production, technology, and dress tradition
• Emotional attachment and the memory of cloth
Comparative, theoretical, and methodologically innovative approaches are warmly encouraged.
Submission Guidelines
• Abstract length: maximum length of 250 words
• Deadline: December 31, 2026
• Submission format: Please include your name, affiliation, contact information, and a short bio (100–150 words).
• Presentation format: All papers must be delivered on-site in Warsaw. The full venue will be streamed online for remote audiences.
• Registration: Free of charge for all participants, with admission for listeners on-site on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Language: The conference will be held in English.
Important Dates
• December 31, 2026: Deadline for abstract submissions.
• January 31, 2027: Notification of acceptance.
• February 28, 2027: Deadline for speaker registration.
• April 20, 2027: Deadline of registration for listeners online.
Venue
Pałac Staszica, Warsaw, Poland Home to the Polish Academy of Sciences, the venue offers a historic and intellectually vibrant setting for cross cultural dialogue on ancient dress and textile cultures.
Contact and organising committee
Aleksandra Hallmann
Katarzyna Kapiec