Postgraduate Textiles and Fashion Symposium
Sydney, 12 August 2026
The 2026 Postgraduate Textiles and Fashion Symposium welcomes postgraduate students from across Australia and Aotearoa to join us for this one-day event to share their textile and fashion research.
The overarching theme for this year's symposium is Transformation.
Designed to be a friendly, supportive, and intimate experience, the symposium provides emerging researchers with vital opportunities to develop their academic identities, gain presentation experience, and receive meaningful feedback within a supportive, discipline-specific community.
Current higher degree research candidates are invited to participate by submitting an abstract by 17 June. Find out more by referring to the submission guidelines detailed below.
The symposium will be open to attendance from the wider academic sector, industry and the public. The full program and registration information will be announced in early July.
For further information, email: textilesevents@unsw.edu.au
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Symposium Date: Wednesday 12 August 2026
UNSW Textiles & Fashion Postgraduate Exhibition Opening: Tuesday 11 August 2026
Location: UNSW School of Art & Design, Sydney, Australia
Attendance Format: Face-to-face only (In-person event; no hybrid option)
Symposium Leads: Emma Peters and Alana Clifton-Cunningham
Exhibition Curator: Monika Cvitanovic
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The overarching theme for this year's symposium is Transformation.
Participants will engage in critical conversations shaping the future of textiles and fashion, contribute to discussions on sustainability, ethics, technology, and cultural change, and examine the transformative potential of their own work within a broader ecosystem.
Papers and research submissions are invited to address the following sub-themes:
- Material Transformations: How materials change, evolve, or are reimagined.
- Ecological & Societal Transformations: Examining textiles and fashion as a driver and mirror of social change.
- Technological Transformations: The interface between emerging tech and textile futures.
- Transformations of Craft: Craft practices adapting, resisting, or evolving.
- Transformations of Identity, Body & Dress: Fashion’s role in shaping self, belonging, and representation.
- Transformations of Systems & Economies: Rethinking how fashion operates from macro to micro.
- Transformations of Aesthetics & Culture: How tastes, forms, and fashion languages evolve.
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Presentations
Discover innovative research projects underway across Australia and Aotearoa. Presenters will deliver oral sessions highlighting diverse methodologies, innovative practices, and contemporary debates that expand perspectives and strengthen the quality of textile futures.
Curated Companion Exhibition
In tandem with the presentation sessions, the symposium features a curated companion exhibition showing the practice-based and practice-led work of UNSW Postgraduates and Researchers working in textiles and fashion. This physical exhibition celebrates the material execution of design research, focusing on sustainability, digital innovation, and craft exploration.
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For Higher Degree Research candidates / Presenters
- Develop vital presentation skills, build professional networks, and boost your research visibility.
- Gain essential academic momentum, reduce postgraduate isolation, and find a sense of belonging in a supportive community.
- Gain exposure to diverse methodologies, innovative practices, and contemporary debates to expand your perspectives and strengthen your work.
For the wider sector and industry partners
- Connect directly with a pipeline of innovative researchers whose work addresses urgent material, technological, cultural, and ecological challenges facing contemporary textiles and fashion.
- Engage in collaborative knowledge exchange, accelerating the translation of academic and design concepts into practical, future-focused industry applications.
- Spotlight emerging talent and collaborate on ideas driving sustainable practices, digital transformation, and craft revitalisation across the industry.
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We invite higher degree research candidates to share their insights and shape the future of the sector.
Please review the guidelines below to submit your proposal:
- Submission Deadline: Abstracts must be submitted before 17 June.
- Word Count: 300 words
- Accepted Formats: We are calling for Oral Presentations only.
- Questions? Send your enquiries directly to textilesevents@unsw.edu.au.
- Important Attendance Note: This is an in-person, face-to-face event only. No virtual or hybrid options will be provided for presenters or attendees.
Image: Megan Hanson, Synthesis (Marcus) in Revealing Dress: Fashion as Portraiture at Casula Powerhouse 2025. Handwoven digital jacquard zero-waste garments, organic cotton with hand-spun merino wool smocking, framed in plasma cut aluminium sheet metal. Photograph: Chantel Bann.
Acknowledgement of Country
UNSW School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.
We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
