MAP Academy & Nalli Fellowship 2025-2027 (Deadline: 15 October, 2025)

Applications are invited for the MAP Academy & Nalli Fellowship 2025-2027. South Asian textiles form a crucial part of local as well as global histories. The MAP Academy & Nalli Fellowships will support South Asia-based projects that generate new interest in the region’s textile practices among diverse audiences. The Fellowships combine Nalli Silks’ focus area of textile production and design, with the MAP Academy’s vision of fostering incisive research in the study of art histories from South Asia.

This Fellowship programme is a collaboration between Nalli Silks, the heritage textile brand, and the MAP Academy, a platform encouraging greater and more equitable engagement with South Asia’s art and cultural histories.

Areas of Focus

The Fellowship programme supports research into under-explored textile-related histories, practices, and traditions across South Asia. Applicants may propose projects on any textile-centric subject. The following areas of research are encouraged:

• Histories of clothing and costume
• Community or personal textile archives
• Textiles in religious or liturgical contexts
• Environmental impact of textile production and consumption  
• Endangered or disappearing textile traditions
• Critical perspectives on revivalism
• Labour in textile production, with a focus on caste, class, and gender 
• Textiles in relation to other cultural forms—storytelling, poetry, music, architecture, and material culture
• Textiles in the context of archaeological study
• Textiles as symbols or metaphors in literature or mythology
• Techniques and tools used in specific textile traditions

Benefits

• A total of four Fellowships will be awarded, each carrying a one-time grant of INR 550,000.

Eligibility

• Open to early- and mid-career professionals.
• They invite applications from researchers as well as designers, archivists, journalists, writers, educators, practitioners, and also collectives and non-profit organisations.

Application

The application form is structured to serve as a comprehensive project proposal. Applications are open till 15th October 2025.

The application form is designed to help the reviewing committee understand the focus and stakes of your project. Certain sections require you to upload a document. Precise instructions and templates are provided in the relevant sections.

Deadline: October 15, 2025

For more information, visit MAP Academy & Nalli Fellowship.