Call for Papers: Textile Intersections 2026 Due 20 April 2026

We are delighted to announce the 2026 edition of Textile Intersections will be hosted in London, UK by the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London and invite contributions of papers for oral presentations at the conference on 17^th and 18^th of September 2026.  

Textile Intersections provides a platform for original research that focuses on the interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary nature of textiles research. It encourages critical dialogue and new perspectives on textiles research and its adjacent areas of interest. 

The general conference theme is Material intelligence which encompasses a wide range of interpretations, from broad definitions of materials that are used in textile production/fabrication, to the exploration of ‘Intelligence’ as contextualised by AI, advances in biotechnology, and explorations of multi-species and more-than-human intelligence.

We are interested in works that address and expand the theme’s critical aspects in relation to textile technology, textile thinking and textile practices. This might include human-machine collaboration; the use of non-human agents (whether biological or synthetic); and the construction of commons within craft tradition, communities, and the passing of knowledge through material processes. 

We look forward to receiving your contributions to the next Textile Intersections conference!

Call for Paper Contributions

We invite original contributions of full papers exploring interdisciplinary connections, collaborations and communities that further research in the field of textiles and textile design, particularly those that consider the conference theme of Material Intelligence.  

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 

• Craft, Computation, Digital Fabrication 

• Sustainability and Circularity 

• Interactive textiles (including sensing, actuating, smart textiles) 

• Textile technologies and future fabrication methodologies 

• Biological, Chemical, and Digital Material Innovation 

• Textiles to wear, to deploy, to install 

• Social textiles: cognition, collaboration, storytelling 

• Critical reflections on and around textiles, including history, fashion, materials 

• Textile Ecosystems and Regenerative Practices and Technology,  

• Biodesign, Bioengineering  

• Policy, Social Impact, AI Cultural Heritage 

• Human and More Than Human textile narrative 

Key Dates

• Full Paper submission: Monday, 20 April 2026 

• Notification: Wednesday, 17 June 2026 

• Final paper submissions: 31 July 2026 

• Conference dates: 17-18 September 2026 

Submission Guidelines

Please submit an anonymised version of your full paper using the template, that will be provided soon. 

All papers will be peer reviewed on a double blind basis. For this reason, please make sure to remove any direct links or mentions that reveal authorship details.  

Papers are anticipated to be around 2500-4000 words of length. The maximum word count for paper submissions is limited to 4000 words, excluding references and appendices, but including title, abstract, and acknowledgements. 

The link to the submission platform will be announced and posted in due course at: https://www.textile-intersections.com/. Please stay tuned for updates. 

Proceedings

All accepted and presented papers will be published in the conference proceedings and made available through the Design Research Society’s Digital Library.  

Contact

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Paper Chairs Jane Scott (jane.scott@newcastle.ac.uk) and Sophie Skach (Sophie.Skach@santannapisa.it).