Summary: In this episode host Ashar speaks with Pramila Choudhary, a designer and researcher specializing in sustainability and textile design. Pramila shares her journey from a small village in Rajasthan, India, to her work in textiles and current PhD research in Canada. The conversation explores her early influences in textiles, the transition from corporate fashion to community-centered practices, and the critical role women play in preserving craft knowledge and fostering sustainable practices.
Bio: Pramila Choudhary is an interdisciplinary artist and designer working at the intersection of craft, art, design, and sustainability. Trained as a textile and industrial designer at the National Institute of Design (India) and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Switzerland), her practice is rooted in material culture, community-based research, and embodied knowledge.
With over a decade of experience in the textiles and clothing industry, Pramila has collaborated with corporations, non-profits, artisanal communities, and design institutions across India and internationally. Her work explores craft as a way of thinking through materials, and examines how practice-led, experiential knowledge can inform and shape academic design research.
Currently a PhD candidate in Geography, Urban, and Environmental Studies at Concordia University, Tiohtiá:ke/ Montreal, Quebec, her research focuses on sustainability through generational craft practices, ecofeminist perspectives, and material culture. She is actively engaged with the Textile and Materiality Cluster at the Milieux Institute and the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, where her research-creation practice contributes to local and global conversations on climate justice, community resilience, and decolonial approaches to design.
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Links:
Instagram: @pramilach & @projecthandstitch
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pramila-choudhary