Sanniah Jabeen

Sanniah Jabeen is a PhD student in the Department of Art History at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral research focuses on textiles from South Asia and particularly the impact of digital printing, machine-replication, and mass-production on modern and contemporary 'folk' crafts in Pakistan. Central to her research are questions of how artisans and craft communities respond to changing markets, movements across networks of craft exchange, differing forms of gendered craft labor, textiles as markers of ethnicity and nationality, and concerns over the ‘indigeneity’ of the handmade. For her dissertation, Sanniah is studying the "Ajrak," a block-printed and resist dyed rectangular cotton textile. By considering its handmade forms and mass-produced representations as a markers of certain ethnicity, the Ajrak is juxtaposed as a political tool of representation with its high-fashion counterpart amidst global concerns around craft-preservation.

Selected Publications

• “Beloved Mosque: The Wazir Khan Masjid of Lahore”. Intaglio Art Journal, Vol. 3. The University of Toronto. 2021. https://intaglio.sa.utoronto.ca/2021/05/15/volume-3/

Honours, Awards and Grants

• 2021–24 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship
• 2021 Curatorial Residency Award, The University of Toronto Art Museum
• 2020–21 Dan Mishra Intern for South-Asia at the Royal Ontario Museum
• 2019–20 Graduate Expansion Fund, University of Toronto Mississauga
• 2019 Faculty of Arts & Science Recognition of Excellence Award, University of Toronto