Advanced Textiles Expo 2026

Karl Aspelund
Associate Director, URI Honors Program; Associate Professor, Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design
Univ. Rhode Island


Karl is Associate Director of the Honors Program, Associate Professor of Design at the University of Rhode Island, and Visiting Associate Professor in Ethnology at the University of Iceland. A Ph.D. in Anthropology and Material Culture at Boston University followed twenty years designing for theater, film, and public art. Karl has authored three design textbooks, and his co-authored volume on Icelandic culture-creation was nominated for the 2017 Icelandic Literary Prize. Within the 100 Year Starship organization he has focused on textile needs in long-duration spaceflight, leading to human factors, ecological issues, and circular economies both in space and on Earth.

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