‘Clothing the Palace: Indo-Persianate Textile Experience in the Courts of Northern India’
Supervisor: Professor Sussan Babaie
Advisor: Professor Deborah Swallow
Funded by AHRC Doctoral Studentship, Consortium for the Humanities and Arts South-East England (CHASE)
My PhD explores the use of textiles as creators of spaces, moods and sensory experiences, in the palaces of Northern India during the early modern period (c.1550-1800). It focuses on how the material properties of textiles contained and intensified multi-sensory activities, ‘completing’ architecture built in stone. The multi-dimensional and richly decorated royal fabrics of India had their own material and emotional agency, containing, capturing, reflecting and intensifying sounds (rāgas, ghazals, classical Indian music and poetry in Persian and other languages), smells and tastes of courtly feasts, the heat, flickering lamp light and smells of perfumes and scents. These textiles created an ambience or an ‘emotional mood’ that is site-specific, shared, and that holds onto and contains traces of historical emotions and sensory encounters. Working through multi-disciplinary methodologies based largely in Indian philosophies of space, mood and the senses, my thesis aims to resituate textiles as a major part of palatial architecture, investigating how the palaces of Northern India were used, seen and felt.
As well as this, I have a keen passion and academic background in Tibetan and Himalayan languages and arts, and have researched and published on this area.
Education
2021-present: Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London,
PhD in History of Art: ongoing.
Thesis title: Clothing the Palace: Indo-Persianate Textile Experience in the Courts of Northern India.
2019-2021: The University of Oxford, The Queen’s College/ Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies,
MPhil in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies: Merit with Distinction in thesis.
Thesis title: An Interwoven World: Sensory Experiences of Textiles in the Alchi Sumtsek.
2014-2017: Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London,
BA (hons) History of Art: First
Dissertation title: From Fabric to Ceramic: Symbolic Experiences of Trellis Tents in the Khanate of Khiva. My BA dissertation won the award ‘The Courtauld Prize – Outstanding BA History of Art Year Three Essay’.
Employment
2025, forthcoming: The Tibet Museum, Central Tibetan Administration, Gangchen Kyishong, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India, AHRC Doctoral Work Placement (Internship): I am travelling to India to undertake a three-month doctoral work placement at the Tibet Museum in Dharamshala in January 2025. The book and/or exhibition project, on to the history of Tibetan textiles and dress, will include a series of interviews conducted in Tibetan (with English where needed) with the generation of tailors that came to India in the 1950s and 1960s, including the tailor of HH. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama. This will be coupled with archival and historical investigation with different material and textile collections held in monasteries and temples in and around Dharamshala, and possibly further afield within India.
2024-5: The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, AHRC Doctoral Work Placement: I undertook a three-month doctoral work placement at the V&A, within the India department, to archive and catalogue the extensive library and archive of the late curator of Tibetan, Himalayan, and southeast Asian art, Dr John Clarke. This involved working closely with the India department, and with the National Art Library. I also assisted with the running of an international conference on Indian textiles, conducted numerous informal tours of the ‘Great Mughals’ temporary exhibition, and with the running and preparation of object study sessions with the V&A’s collections.
2022: Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London: Research Assistant.
2018-2023: Joss Graham Gallery, London: Weekend Manager, Gallery Assistant, Social Media Lead, Primary Curator and Display Coordinator, working with antique textiles and works of art from India, Pakistan, Tibet, Mongolia, the Himalayas, Japan, Central, South and Southeast Asia. I led a number of classes for visiting students, including groups from SOAS, and managed the gallery’s social media for a number of years. I participated in public events and private views, hanging new displays of antique works of art, dealing with curators, lecturers and collectors. I have experience in working with major interior design companies, and with bespoke-made products. I also have experience with carrying out research for dating and identifying numerous textiles and other artefacts.
2017-2018: Turkmen Gallery, London: Assistant Manager, Turkmen and Central Asian Antique Textiles and Works of Art.
2017-2018: Turquoise Mountain, London (remote): Research Volunteer for the Afghanistan branch of Turquoise Mountain, researching the historic nineteenth-century centre of Kabul.
2014-2017: Courtauld Institute of Art, Book Library, London: Assistant Student Librarian.
Volunteer Work
2022-present: English Language Teaching, Dharamshala, India: I regularly volunteer to teach English informally to Tibetan refugees in various contexts in the Tibetan settlement of McLeodganj, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India.
2022-present: Himalayan Tribal Buddhist Welfare Society, (हिमालय बौद्ध जनजातीय कल्याण सभा / ཧི་མཱ་ལ་ཡའི་ནང་པའི་རིགས་རྒྱུད་བདེ་དོན་ཚོགས་པ།), Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India: Consultant volunteer translator (Tibetan and Hindi into English) and secretary (including several successful funding applications).
2021: LopLao སློབ་སླའོ། (Easy Tibetan), London (remote): Trustee (secretary) for LopLao, a Tibetan language school based in the UK.
2015-2017: Courtauld Institute of Art Annual Book Sale, London.
Teaching, Lectures, other Academic Work
2025 (forthcoming): Course Leader, ‘On the Roof of the World: An Introduction to the Art and Architecture of Tibet and the Himalayas’, Summer School Short Course (designed, organised, and taught by me), Courtauld Institute of Art.
2024-5: Lead Organiser, ‘From the Land of Snows: The Art and Material Culture of Tibet and the Himalayas’, series of lectures and events, Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum.
2024: Paper, ‘From Agra to Kashmir: Clothing Jahangir’s Garden Pavilions during the Monsoon’, Third-Year PhD Symposium, Courtauld Institute of Art.
2023: Public paper, ‘At the Intersection of Political and Ritual Functions of Textiles: Sensory Experiences of Textiles in the Sumtsek at Alchi, Ladakh’, at the 28th Medieval Postgraduate Colloquium, Courtauld Institute of Art.
2023: Paper, ‘How can we Capture the Feelings of the Past? Encounters with Textiles and Spaces in the Palaces of Mughal India’, Second-Year PhD Symposium at The Courtauld Institute of Art.
2023: Study Session, I co-hosted a study session of historic textiles at The Courtauld with the Textile Working Group, speaking about fragments of Mughal carpets in The Courtauld’s collection.
2023: TA in the History of Art, Art History Link Up, taught at Courtauld Institute of Art.
2023: Gallery Talk, ‘Encounters with Objects from the Silk Roads in The Courtauld Collection’, The Courtauld Summer School, The Courtauld Gallery.
2023: TA in the History of Art, The Courtauld Summer University, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.
2022: Special Public Lecture, ‘How can we Capture the Feelings of the Past? Encounters with Textiles and Spaces in Mughal India’, Mehr Chand Mahajan DAV College for Women, Panjab University, India (online).
2022: Guest Lecturer, ‘Spaces, Moods and Senses: Textiles and Palaces in Northern India’, BA History of Art, George Washington University, USA (online).
Publications
Jordan Quill, ‘Senses, Moods and Spaces: Experiencing Textiles and Architecture during the Monsoon’ in Reading Corner 15, 1 (July-September 2023), Delhi: Niyogi Books, 1.
Jordan Quill, ‘An Interwoven World: Sensory Experiences of Textiles in the Sumtsek at Alchi, Ladakh’ in Immediations: The Courtauld Institute of Art Journal of Postgraduate Research 20 (2023), Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 50-75.
Jordan Quill, Karma and the Snow Lion (Niyogi Books: New Delhi, 2025 forthcoming) [a children’s book illustrated through collaboration with Tamang thangka painters about the pashmina fibre’s origins in the Changthang region of Tibet, Tibetans in exile, and Tibetan calligraphy, culture and cuisine.]
Awards and Grants
2021-present: AHRC Doctoral Studentship, Consortium for the Humanities and Arts South-East England (CHASE).
2019-2021: Lingyin Graduate Scholarship in Buddhist Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford.
2019: Ancient and Modern Award, sponsored by the HALI and Cornucopia journals, Uzbekistan.
2016: John Hayes Travel Grant Award, Uzbekistan.
Research Interests and Areas of Knowledge
Tibetan Buddhist art; Tibetan and Nepalese art and architecture; Tibetan language; Tibetan thangka painting; Tibetan textiles and dress; visual culture at the time of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama; the relationship between India and Tibet; The Himalayan silk routes; Architecture in Ladakh; Himalayan languages; Himalayan textiles; Timurid architecture, painting and portable arts; The ‘Silk Roads’; Mongol textiles, art and architecture; Indian textiles; Mughal art, painting and architecture; Rajput art, painting and architecture; Classical Indian music; Indian dance and costume; Pre-Mughal India; The History of Emotions in India.
Language Proficiency
- Semi-proficient: Tibetan (བོད་སྐད་), Classical/Literary/Scriptural Tibetan (བོད་ཡིག).
- Limited: Hindi (हिन्दी).
- Reading experience: Mandarin Chinese (普通话) (simplified and traditional), Persian (فارسی), Urdu (اُردُو), Uzbek (O’zbekcha), Russian (Ру́сский Язы́к).
Professional and Academic Memberships
- One of the founding members of the Textile Working Group at The Courtauld Institute
- Fellow at The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Member of The Oriental Rug and Textile Society
- Member of The Indian Art Circle
- Contributor: HALI Magazine
