Cotton Threads: Fabricating Ethical Production and Consumption in the Garment Industry

Faculty team members:
Shiv Ganesh, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Moody College of Communication 
Sharmila Rudrappa, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts

Student team members:
Neha Donthineni, Biology/Plan II
Yves Mendoza, International Relations and Global Studies/French Studies
Elyssa Sefiane, Middle Eastern Studies/Religious Studies
Abigail Walker, Economics/Plan II

Patrick Davis, Religious Studies

Ria Goyal, Plan II/Biochemistry
Janani Gopal, Neuroscience
Nivedha Loganathan, Plan II/Public Health

International Partners:
Nudie Jeans – Gothenburg, Sweden 
International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore – Bangalore, India

This faculty-led program aims to help students learn about the ethical production and consumption of high fashion through coursework, field visits, and independent research in three sites: Texas, Sweden, and India. The program team will partner with the company Nudie Jeans, headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, working with their suppliers and academic collaborators in Bangalore, India. Program goals are to teach students how the company strives to: achieve ecological sustainability; instill social justice across production nodes in global commodity chains for growers, textile workers, and garment workers; and offer radical transparency to consumers on ethical production processes and profits. Students will have the opportunity to integrate the skills and knowledge developed over Spring and Summer 2022 to test Nudie Jeans’ business model in Texas, which is the largest grower of cotton in the U.S.