Hajji Baba Club Names Cosima Stewart and Adela Foo 2026–2027 Research Fellows

Two scholars selected for original research advancing the study of carpets and textiles

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, September 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Hajji Baba Club is pleased to announce that Cosima Stewart and Adela Foo have been selected as the 2026–2027 Hajji Baba Club Research Fellows from an exceptional group of applicants. Recognizing the remarkable strength and diversity of this year’s submissions, the Fellowship Committee elected to name two co-fellows, each pursuing an outstanding project that advances the study of carpets and textiles in distinct ways.

Cosima Stewart is Researcher and Publication Coordinator at HALI Publications Ltd. in London and Creative Director of reWoven, a nonprofit organization in Tbilisi dedicated to sustaining the weaving traditions of Azerbaijani communities in Georgia. Her project, Lost Connections: Wool and Weaving in 19th Century Georgia, examines rug weaving in the Caucasus through archival research, technical analysis, museum collections, and fieldwork across Georgia, Azerbaijan, and eastern Türkiye. By bringing together historical sources with the close study of exemplary rugs and textiles, Stewart’s research seeks to reconstruct the relationships between landscape, pastoralism, wool production, and weaving traditions in nineteenth-century Georgia. The project brings renewed attention to Georgia’s place within the history of weaving in the Caucasus while exploring the communities, materials, and landscapes that shaped textile production across the region.

Adela Foo is a doctoral candidate at Yale University. Her fellowship project forms the third chapter of her dissertation on the Aq Quyunlu (“White Sheep”) Turkmen confederation, which ruled much of Iran, Iraq, and eastern Anatolia during the fifteenth century. Focusing on three important carpets in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Foo examines weavers as agents of artistic, political, and technological change. Her research reconsiders the attribution of the enigmatic group known as “Para-Mamluk” carpets in relation to the Aq Quyunlu and traces a visual language that developed across the interconnected artistic centers of Herat, Tabriz, and Istanbul. By placing carpets in dialogue with the broader material and visual culture of the period, the project seeks to expand our understanding of their role within a formative moment in the history of Islamic art.

“Cosima and Adela approach carpet history from very different directions, but both projects demonstrate exactly the kind of rigorous, object-centered research the Fellowship was created to encourage,” said Zach Zaman, President of the Hajji Baba Club. “Cosima’s work has the potential to bring new depth and nuance to our understanding of Georgian weaving and its place within the broader textile traditions of the Caucasus, while Adela’s research addresses important questions of attribution, artistic exchange, and the role of carpets within the wider material culture of the fifteenth-century Persianate world. We are delighted to support them both.”

The Hajji Baba Club Research Fellowship promotes original scholarship in the field of carpets and textiles by providing financial support and visibility to emerging scholars and independent researchers.

About the Hajji Baba Club
The Hajji Baba Club is the oldest organization in America devoted to the study of oriental carpets and antique textiles. Founded in New York City in 1932, its original members included many collectors whose carpets and textiles now form important holdings in several of the nation’s major museums. Prominent collectors and textile scholars continue to be part of the HBC membership today, along with many other enthusiasts. Through lectures, exhibitions, publications, field trips, fellowships, and other educational programs, the Club works to advance scholarship and foster a deeper public understanding of textile arts.

Dr. Heather Ecker, Fellowship Chair
Hajji Baba Inc.
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