Dorothy Armstrong

Dr Dorothy Armstrong is a historian of material culture, with a particular interest in West, Central and South Asia. Her recent research has focused on so-called oriental carpets, and their use in support of European and North American systems of power, value and taste during 19th and 20th centuries.

Dorothy Armstrong is May Beattie Visiting Fellow in Carpet Studies at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, where she is working on the creation of knowledge about Asian carpets in the late 20th century, and its cultural and political implications. She was formerly lecturer and tutor in the History of Design program in the School of Arts and Humanities at the Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum.

She was educated at the University of Cambridge, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum.

ResearchGate Academia.edu RCA Staff RCA

Teaching at the RCA/V&A

Material Histories of Asia
Theory, Skills and Methods in History of Design
Key Concepts in Design History
Supervisor of MA essays

PhD and MA

What is an ‘oriental’ carpet? Reimagining, remaking, repossessing the patterned pile carpets of South, Central and West Asia since 1840, PhD Thesis, RCA/V&A, 2019. (Higher quality pdf available upon request)
Unravelling the Carpet: Oriental Carpets in ‘The International Exhibition of Persian Art’, 1931, ‘The World of Islam Festival’, 1976, and ‘Turks’ 2005, MA Dissertation, RCA/V&A, 2014. WorldCat.

Publications

Armstrong, D. November 2021, ‘A transnational and transcultural loop: Pakistan’s repossession of the ‘oriental’ carpet and its imaginary’, Rhapsodic Objects, Noemie Etienne and Yaelle Biro eds. Berlin: De Gruyter
Armstrong, D. forthcoming, 'Turkish Rugs and Carpets' Encyclopedia of Asian Design, London and New York: Berg/ Bloomsbury
Armstrong, D. 2020, Inventing the Ardabil Carpet: A Case Study in the Appropriation and Transformation of a Persian Artifact, Iran 58:1
Armstrong, D. 2018, ‘King Faisal’s Hat: a Case-Study in Creolisation’, in English and Chinese, Yun Wang trans., Zhuangshi, 304, pp 66–73
Armstrong, D. 2018, 'Disney at the Ashmolean', Prova: RCA Arts and Humanities Research Journal, pp 62–67
Armstrong, D. 2013, 'Synthetic Dyes in Persian Carpets of the 19th Century', Oxford Asian Textiles Journal, (November, 2013)

Conference and colloquium papers

Refugees and Rugs: 150 years of carpet-making in Punjab and Pakistan ,'Textile and Place', Manchester School of Art, October 2021
Reflections on a cross-disciplinary experiment in machine learning using Iznik tiles as the data set, ( see Other Projects below), DLX Design Lab/Royal College of Art Artificial Intelligence and Design Symposium. Presented in Japanese by Dr. Sarah Teasley, RCA, May 2020
Memory and Borders: Examining Nationalism and Identity through Material Culture, RCA, V&A, Design History Society Workshop, co-chair
‘Appropriating the London Ardabil Carpet: The ‘oriental’ carpet as a tool for the invention of Persian cultural heritage’ Ninth European Conference for Iranian Studies, Berlin. (presented in absentia by Dr Yuka Kadoi, University of Vienna)
A transgeographical and transcultural loop: Pakistan's repossession of the 'oriental' carpet and its imaginary, British Institute of Middle Eastern Studies Conference, King's College London, June 2018. Chair of panel 'New Approaches'. Information.
Repossessing the 'oriental ' carpet imaginary, Transpositions Summer School: ‘Sensible Objects, Material Engagement, Skilled Expertise’, Universities of Bern, Lucerne, Utrecht, and ERC Artechne, Utrecht, August 2017
The Templeton Archive: University of Glasgow, Unpacking the Archive colloquium, Brighton University and RCA, March 2017
The Afterlives of the Ardabil Carpet in the West, Symposia Iranica, Pembroke College, Cambridge, May 2017 and European Association for Olomuc, October 2014
Dyes, Carpets, Class and Taste, Fashion and Textile Design colloquium, University of Brighton, June 2013

Talks

Mrs Beattie and Mr Getty: A Carpet Controversy, Oxford Asian Textiles Group, 26 August 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlbqB-4XUks
Reframing the Carpet – The Afterlife of the Ardabil Carpets in the West, Oxford Asian Textile Group, 13 November 2017. Information.
The introduction of synthetic dyes into 19th century Persian carpets, Oxford Asian Textiles Group, October 2013

Other Projects

Advisor and contributer to London Iranian Association on National Lottery Heritage Fund film ‘ The Story of the Persian Carpet’ 2017-2018
Investigator in collaborative RCA/ Imperial College experiment in computer-learning. The experiment used the V&A’s collection of Iznik tiles as its data. 2018. Popular article
Academic lead for the contribution of the V&A/RCA History of Design MA programme to RCA2020; the RCA's first entirely digital annual show of student work. 2020.

Awards

The Clive Wainwright Prize, V&A History of Design MA Programme 2014
The British Institute of Middle Eastern Studies/ Abdullah al- Mubarak al-Sabah scholarship 2017-2018

May Beattie Visiting Fellow in Carpet Studies

Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology

Beaumont Street

Oxford, OX1 2PH

Contact

dorothy[dot]armstrong[at]ashmus[dot]ox[dot]ac[dot]uk

dorothy[dot]armstrong [at]network[dot]rca[dot]ac[dot]uk