The making of Fashioning Sudan

The road to this point has, however, been much longer! As the project will soon get into its full swing – with the whole team on board and many more activities – it seemed like an opportune time to reflect back and retrace our steps to the beginning. This blog post will give a few pointers on where we are now and on how we got there.

2018-2019 – the idea(s)

As it often happens in research, Fashioning Sudan is in many ways the result of a snowballing effect from a previous project. In this case, from the Marie Skłodowska Curie project TexMeroe (MSCA743420) that I started in 2018 at the Centre for Textile Research (CTR). Fresh from my PhD, this postdoc aimed at establishing in greater details the characteristics of the Meroitic textile craft in ancient Sudan and Nubia. It did so by exploring different lenses of textile activities, especially on technical aspects, from the use of fibres to making the finished product. However, from the start, other questions started arising. Did these technical choices reflect deeper meanings or strongly impacted the society and/or individuals?

Together with different colleagues, I explored the possibilities to relate e.g. cotton production with elite cloth consumption and garment choices with cultural belonging. Discussions and shared projects with Magdalena M. Wozniak, Charlene Bouchaud, and the Sai Island Archaeological Mission (CNRS) – to name only a few – then fed this collective reflection. Working everyday at CTR and going deeper in textile research, I was also much inspired by the work of Marie-Louise Nosch, Mary Harlow, Eva Andersson Strand, and Marie Louise Stig Sorensen. Based on the general principals of the “cloth culture” model, the idea of developing an “archaeology of dress practices” in Sudan was born.

Its main tenant is utterly simple: to identify, trace, and analyse the different ways in which dress-related practices can inform past identities. We wanted to see if and how archaeological garments can be used as a proxy to better understand human behaviour, from their manufacture to their uses in daily life and in death.

2019-2020…and 2021! – The application phase

From this initial concept, the long process of building an ERC application unfolded. I got extremely fortunate at his stage, as I could benefit from regular feedback rounds, brainstorming session, mentorship, and overall support through different channels at the University of Copenhagen. The “ERC Track” that I followed through my training as a UCPH Forward fellow was particularly useful in pin-pointing WHAT I wanted to do and WHY. Brainstorming with colleagues at CTR and in natural sciences provided much of the project methodological scaffolding while exchanges with archaeologists and museum curators working on Sudan gave the project its material breath. Last but not least, the support offered by UCPH and the Saxo institute throughout the whole application process was astounding in its efficacy and razor-sharp finishing touches. A huge shout-out to the Research support team, Mads and Hans-Christian – Stuart Ward, and the members of the feedback and mock interview committees.

Far from a single effort, this project is the result of many people’s efforts. Not once, but twice, since the application only became successful in its second iteration, in 2022. The experts who reviewed the first version gave a very detailed and useful report, which I used extensively to redress the project’s weaknesses. Thanks to the financial support received in 2021 from the Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond ERC program, I managed to redress the theoretical and methodological bases of the project while collecting preliminary data and conducting pilot studies. After much rewriting, minute adjusting, and intensive interview training, the project was allocated founded in January 2022.

This story was certainly full of ups and downs, and may not be everyone’s ERC story. But in many ways, it shows the importance of having a true questions at heart, a theme that will carry your motivation throughout. It also highlight the invaluable help that one can receive from a true support team, rich of diverse profiles and experiences.

2022-2023 – Setting the project in motion

Fashioning Sudan took its first steps at the end of August 2022, more than a year ago. It is easy to feel that the last twelve months have not produced as much results as I hoped when I was devising the working plan, at the time of application. The list of publication has not grown much, and the database is still sitting in its testing phase. A bit daunting! Retrospectively however, a number of very important things have happened, and many of the project’s key-elements has been laid out. This first phase has been very much about preparing the bricks and construction tools, so we can build a solid building later on.

The first of these large tasks was of course to recruit the team. From a small team of one, the project now counts two postdocs (soon to be three), a project manager/research assistant, two MA students, and a student helper. Other colleagues have also joined this core group to provide specialised expertise in data management, weaving, or archaeological illustrations.

Collaborations have also been established with several museums and institutions, such as the Gustavianum Museum (University of Uppsala), the British Museum, the Sudan National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, and the French Archaeological Section in Khartoum (SFDAS). We already carried-out research visits in several museum as well as joined the Sai Island Archaeological Mission in November 2022. Many more are on the calendar!

All this data is soon to be recorded in the project database, which is now in its final design and testing phase at the South Campus Data Lab, UCPH. The database will span textile and animal skin garments, as well as iconographic representations and occasional body ornaments. Its conception was therefore quite complex and required a number of animated discussions within the team! Its realisation will be an outstanding milestone for the project as a whole and we are looking forward to using it.

So far, research has focused on redefining the way we understand and talk about clothing practices in Sudan. Team workshops, readings, and conference presentations have zoomed in body theory in archaeology, concept of dress and nakedness, decolonisation, and garment terminology. We hope to continue this work through the launch of the Fashioning Sudan seminar series.

Many of these themes and tools took long to establish, but their implementation will be essential to the project’s success. Now that all the bricks are here – it is time to start building!

We cannot close this first year without mentioning the fighting that erupted in Khartoum in April of this year and has since plunged Sudan in a state of war. While the population as a whole is suffering greatly, most of our colleagues have had to escape Khartoum, and the country as well as the Sudan National Museum are not accessible. As the humanitarian situation is worsening, heritage is also under thread. This has touched us very closely and it is still difficult to come to terms with the fact that we cannot go to Sudan, work with our colleagues there, and share our activities with interested audiences. As a project, we will find other channels to keep working and talking about Sudan, while we are eagerly hoping for a bettering of the situation on the ground.

For me as a PI, and for the team as a whole, this project has certainly been long awaited, and working on its development has been challenging and very exciting. We will carry this passion in the coming years, hoping to reveal new aspects of the ancient Sudanese cultures. 

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