Textiles are one of humanity’s oldest and most influential technologies, but most people take them for granted.

In a free public presentation Tuesday, March 22, Virginia Postrel will explore some of the innovations — in fibre, spinning, weaving, and dyeing — that produced today’s textile abundance and the ways textiles shaped civilization.

Postrel is the author of The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World and a visiting fellow at the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at California’s Chapman University. She learned to weave in the course of her research and is now program co-chair for the Southern California Handweavers’ Guild.

Tuesday’s event, presented by the Humanities Research Group, runs 12 to 1 p.m. on Microsoft Teams. Register here to receive the link to attend.