DOROTHY ARMSTRONG

Contact
Email: dorothy.armstrong@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
Academia.edu: Dorothy Armstrong

Biography

Dr Dorothy Armstrong was May Beattie Visiting Fellow in Carpet Studies at the Ashmolean 2021-2022, and is currently on a five-year Honorary Research Associateship in the Ashmolean's Eastern Art Department.

She previously taught the History of Design MA at the Royal College of Art/V&A, and the Master of Fine Art at Edinburgh University’s College of Art. She received the V&A’s Clive Wainwright Prize, and the British Institute of Middle Eastern Studies/Abdullah al-Mubarak al-Sabah Scholarship.

She was educated at the University of Cambridge, London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and the Royal College of Art/V&A.

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Research

Dr Armstrong is a historian of material culture with a special interest in the carpets of Asia and the roles they play in their places of production, consumption, and display. She uses Asian carpets to uncover hidden stories, and to bring a new perspective to more familiar histories.

As Honorary Research Associate in the Eastern Art Department, she continues to investigate the Ashmolean’s carpets and carpet-related archives in support of her ongoing work to uncover the participation of Asian carpets in global history.

She has recently published a book in 2025 entitled Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets, by Weidenfeld and Nicholson in the UK and Macmillan in the US.