Humans have a long-standing emotional connection to the material world, shaping and being shaped by the objects they create and use. These objects play a crucial role in facilitating emotional experiences, reflecting how people have felt about their possessions over time. Textiles, in particular, are material manifestations of human emotions.

As interest in studying materiality in textile research grows, it is an opportune time to look into combining oral histories of cherished textile objects with traditional technical documentation. Through her paper titled From Threads to Tales: Exploring Banaras Weaves as Ensoulments of the Families’ Oral Histories and Memories, Sareekah Agarwaal investigates whether such a combined approach can bridge the fields of the history of emotions and material culture, offering a richer understanding of the past and contributing to the long-term preservation of these textiles.