Tuesday 7 October 2025, 4.00-6.00pm GMT
This is an online event. Register for the Zoom here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sH9bhYrMQYy8D3IyI-N4iQ
The Elemental Work of Studio Glassblowing
Speaker:
Erin O’Connor, sociologist and glassblower, Marymount Manhattan College, New York City
Discussant:
Geoffrey Gowlland, anthropologist and musician, University of Geneva
Abstract:
Studio glassblowing is an art of collaborating bodies, both human and non-human, that makes objects, self and world. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in a New York City glassblowing studio, where O’Connor learned to blow glass, this seminar will explore the elemental engagement of earth, water, air and fire and the human pursuit of the development and experience of craft among studio glassblowers. She asks, ‘What promise does glassblowing uniquely hold for the production of self and world?’ ‘How does research and writing about embodied knowledge, materiality and the transformative power of glassmaking cultivate attention, produce narratives, and bear new research questions?’ Toward these queries, O’Connor delves into the material-semiotics of studio glassblowing, following the glass from its appearance as a studio art medium to the mines and minerals of its making.
Biographical note:
Erin E. O’Connor is an internationally recognized expert in craft studies and Associate Professor of Sociology at Marymount Manhattan College, New York City. Her research specializes in glass, the arts, knowledge, materiality, embodiment and the environment. Her monograph, Fire-Craft: Art, Body, and World among Glassblowers (Columbia University Press, 2025) explores the human condition through the embodied and material dynamics of becoming a studio glassblower. In 2023, she received the Rakow Grant for Glass Research at the Corning Museum of Glass, launching her current book project, The Middle Mineral & the Mine: An Ethnogeology of Studio Glass.
Geoffrey Gowlland is an anthropologist and Researcher in the Department of Education Sciences at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. His work explores the acquisition of material knowledge and skill, as well as initiatives aimed at the revitalisation of material culture practices. He has carried out ethnographic fieldwork on a range of craft practices, including ceramics in China and Taiwan, craft revitalisation and Indigenous issues among Indigenous communities in Taiwan, and dry-stone walling in Switzerland. His research has been published in journals such as JRAI, Ethnos, and the Journal of Modern Craft. His monograph, Reinventing Craft in China, is published by Sean Kingston Publishing.
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Artistry@Work is an online Seminar Series in the Anthropology of Artists & Artisans, running 2024–2026
Maison des Sciences de l’Homme–Université Clermont Auvergne, in collaboration with the Royal Anthropological Institute
Organisers: Dr Raphaël Blanchier & Professor Trevor Marchand
This seminar series in anthropology explores the situated practices of ‘artistry at work’ and, more broadly, the working lives and career trajectories of artists and artisans plying their trades in regions around the globe. The scope of the series also encompasses studies of occupations not conventionally categorised as “artistic” but that nevertheless foster creativity among (some) practitioners and even accommodate the development of “artist” identities.
Find all events in the series here: https://therai.org.uk/series/artistrywork/
