| Sandra Niessen - guest lectures and symposium presentations |
| 2010 | Introduction to the beauty of Batak Textiles, talk delivered to the Textile Arts Council of the De Young Museum of San Francisco, held at the Krimsa Gallery on Union Street. 9 February. |
| 2009 | Launch of Rita Bolland (1919-2006): Curator of Textiles, to Felixoord, Oosterbeek, 24 November. |
| 2009 | Legacy in cloth: Batak Textiles of Indonesia, lecture presented in Asia House, London as part of Asian Art in London 2009, 4 November. |
| 2009 | Bataktextiel, een kunsttraditie als geen andere, lecture for the Tribal Art Fair in De Duif, Amsterdam, 30 October. |
| 2009 | Textiles of Sumatra, Indonesia: Reviewing the Repertory, lecture for the Calgary Rug Group in the Nickle Arts Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 26 September. |
| 2009 | The Importance of Technique in the study of Batak Textiles, informal presentation to the Textile History Class of Capilano University in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 18 September. |
| 2009 | Textiles of Sumatra, Indonesia: Reviewing the Repertory, lecture for the Seattle Textile and Rug Society (STARS), Seattle, Washington, USA, 15 September. |
| 2009 | Textiles of Sumatra, Indonesia: Reviewing the Repertory, lecture for the San Francisco Bay Area Rug Society (SFBARS), Krimsa Gallery on Union Street, 14 September. |
| 2009 | Textiles of Sumatra, Indonesia: Reviewing the Repertory, lecture for the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California (TMA/SC), 12 September. |
| 2009 | Seeing Batak textiles through the eyes of the weaver, Roundtable talk for the Fowler Textiile Council, Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, 10 September. |
| 2009 | Geweven Erfgoed: Verrassende textiel van de Batak / Woven Heritage: The extraordinary textiles of the Batak, Tongtong Fair, The Hague, Netherlands. 31 May. |
| 2009 | Launch of Legacy in cloth, Batak textiles of Indonesia in the Soeterijn Theatre of the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, 15 May. |
| 2006 | Opening Talk for Woven Worlds, an exhibition on the history of collecting Batak Textiles in the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam (16 February – 1 July 2006) |
| 2005 | Kleurgebruik in Stofdessins. Sunday 6 November. Lecture Series associated with the Exhibition, Global Fashion Local Tradition, Centraal Museum, Utrecht. |
| 2001 | The Campus Eco House: A Model for Peace and Well-Being in a Global World. Presentation to the Faculty of Medicine “International Intercultural Health Rounds” Seminar Series. December 10, University of Alberta. |
| 2000 | Renovation as Pedagogy. Panel Presentation for Democracy and Sustainability: Adaptive Planning and Management. Society for Human Ecology XIth International Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. October 18-22. (With Nyree Sharp) |
| 2000 | Reducing Energy Consumption: The Human Ecology Theme House as a Community Model. Panel Presentation for Democracy and Sustainability: Adaptive Planning and Management. Society for Human Ecology XIth International Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. October 18-22 |
| 2000 | Discussion host, with Dr. Lesley Cormack (History and Classics) for the UofA Festival of Ideas, on The Demise and Resurrection of Domesticity. Steeps, Urban Teahouse, Edmonton. |
| 2000 | Translating Peace and Human Security into Daily Life Behaviours. Presentation on the Human Ecology Theme House to International Week. |
| 1999 | Invited Speaker: Indigenous Knowledge and Plants. Building on Biodiversity Workshop. Edmonton, AB. November 19 – 21. |
| 1999 | Discussant for the Panel: Clothing and Nationalism. American Anthropological Association, Chicago, 17 November, 1999 |
| 1999 | Introduction to the Human Ecology Theme House. Luncheon speaker for Home Economists in Business, Edmonton. October 28. |
| 1999 | All Roads Lead to Home. An Introduction to the Human Ecology Theme House: a unique experiment in sustainable living. University of Alberta “Saturday Sampler” Talk, October 2. |
| 1999 | Natural Dyes in a Global Community. Panel Presentation at the Tenth Society for Human Ecology meetings entitled, Living with the Land: Interdisciplinary Research for Adaptive Decision Making, Montreal |
| 1999 | Discussant for the Panel: Fashion, Nationalism and Identity. Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, Boston, March 11-14. |
| 1998 | Plenary speaker: Babes in Academe: The Earliest Roots of Feminist Materialism at the University of Alberta. The Concrete Matters: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Feminist Materialism, University of Alberta, 5- 7 March |
| 1997 | Discussant for: Transforming Crafts in S.E. Asia. Asian Studies Association, Chicago, 13-16 March. |
| 1996 | The Sceptics’ Journey. International Week Presentation, University of Alberta, February. |
| 1996 | Art and the Artifact in the Museum of Anthropology, UBC and Material Culture at the University of Alberta. American Studies Association, Kansas City, 31 October – 3 November. |
| 1996 | Competing with Mechanical Looms: Indonesian Backstrap Weavers in a Global Economy. American Anthropological Association Meeting, San Francisco 20-24 November. |
| 1996 | The Trade of Indigenous Textiles from Thailand and Indonesia: How Green is it? International Textile and Apparel Association Workshop: Marketing Soft Goods to the World: Challenges and Opportunities. |
| 1996 | Competing with Mechanical Looms: Indonesian Backstrap Weavers in a Global Economy. International Federation of Home Economics, Bangkok, 21-26 July. |
| 1995 | The Believers’ Journey. International Week Presentation, University of Alberta, January. |
| 1995 | The Marketing of Craft for a panel on The Marketing of Craft. 5th International Conference on Marketing and Development. 22-25 June (S. Niessen organized the panel). |
| 1995 | Craft and Agroforestry in Thailand. Guest Lecture presented at Maejo University, Chieng Mai, Thailand. July. |
| 1995 | 150 Years of Change in Batak Textiles. Guest Lecture at the invitation of Bona ni Pinasa, Batak magazine in Jakarta. |
| 1995 | Traditional Eastern Indonesian Textiles in 1995 for a panel on Indonesian Images: Textiles and Clothing as Material Culture. International Textile and Apparel Association. Images ’95. Pasadena. 16-21 October. |
| 1994 | Poverty and the Environment. International Week Presentation, University of Alberta, January. |
| 1994 | Impacts of the International Market on Eastern Indonesian Handloom Production. Canadian Asian Studies Association, Calgary, June. |
| 1993 | Fashion and Feminism. Public Talk of the Women’s Program, Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta, November 18. |
| 1993 | The Gestural and the Textual in the Language of the Loom. Canadiana Council for South East Asian Studies. Textile Symposium, Toronto, July. |
| 1993 | Compound Heddles and Twill in the Batak Area of North Sumatra, Indonesia: Variation on Southeast Asian Weave Technical Themes. Ars Textrina Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, June. |
| 1993 | The Politics of Representing the Ainu in Japan’s National Museum of Ethnology. Material Culture Symposium, Santa Fe, April. |
| 1992 | Batak Cloth and Clothing. National Museum of Ethnology, Japan, November. |
| 1992 | Batak Cloth and Clothing. Tokyo International University, Japan, December. |
| 1991 | Photoelicitation. Glenbow Museum, Calgary. Part of the Speaker Program for the From Site to Sight, travelling exhibit. |
| 1991 | Changes in 19th Century Batak Textiles. For History Session of the Indonesian Textiles conference, Basel, Switzerland, August 26-30. |
| 1991 | Interpreting Weaving Techniques. In Technology and Cognition Session at the annual meeting of the Canadian Anthropology Society, April. London, Ontario. (S. Niessen organized the panel.) |
| 1991 | From Artifact to Art: Political Dimensions. University of Calgary Anthropology Colloquium, March 1. |
| 1990 | Toba Batak Textile Invention. In Panel on Traditional Textiles in the Tourist Trade - Textiles in Trade biennial Symposium, The Textile Society of America. Washington, D.C. 14-16. |
| 1990 | Indonesian Textiles from Artifact to Art. Centre for International Studies Semi-Annual South East Asia Art Seminar, Simon Fraser University, B.C., November 8. |
| 1990 | From Artifact to Art: Political Dimensions in It’s a Material World. University of Alberta Interdisciplinary Material Culture Lecture Series, October 18. (S. Niessen organized the series.) |
| 1990 | Batak Textile Invention. Edmonton Weaver’s Guild, October 17. |
| 1990 | Meandering Through Batak Textiles. Ars Textrina 8th Annual Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, June 22-24. |
| 1990 | Batak Textile Invention. Canadian Anthropological Society, Calgary, Alberta, May 2-6. |
| 1989 | There is more to Photoliteracy than Meets the Eye. American Anthropological Association Panel Presentation: Photograph Elicitation for the Purpose of Object Documentation, Washington, D.C., November 17. (S. Niessen organized the panel.) |
| 1989 | The Economic Role of Weavers in Development. The Second Annual Feminist Research Forum, Edmonton, Alberta, October 26, 27. |
| 1989 | Batak Costume in the Early 19th Century for a symposium on Ethnic Dress sponsored by the Costume Society of America, Denver, CO, May 3-7. |
| 1988 | A Description of Batak Textile Research. Presented to the Killam Trustees and Delegates at the 1988 University of Alberta Killam Conference. |
| 1988 | Cognitive Cloths: The Indigenous Classification of Batak Textiles. Presented to the First Symposium of the Textile Society of America, Minneapolis, September 15-18. It was also presented as a Brown Bag Lunch lecture at the University of Alberta Anthropology Department. |
| 1987 | Warp as Lifecycle. Museum of Anthropology Enrichment Lecture, Vancouver. |
| 1986 | Centres of Weaving in the Batak Region of North Sumatra and Researching in the Indigenous Classification System of Batak Textiles: A Case Study. Universitas HKBP Nommensen, Medan, Indonesia. |
| 1984 | The Historical Circumstances Surrounding the Acquisition of 1000 Batak Textiles in 12 European Museums, in the Symposium: Indonesian Textiles – Summings Up, Findings, and Problems. Rautenstrauch-Joest Ethnographic Museum, Cologne. |
| 1983 | The Toba-Batak Ulos may be both “textiles” and “rice land”. Lecture for the South Holland Weavers Association, Delft, The Netherlands. |
| 1982 | Toba Batak Kinship from the Leiden Perspective. University of Toronto, Anthropology Department Brown Bag Series. |
| 1981 | Opening of the Exhibition: Batak Motiefs. Museum Gerardus van der Leeuw, Gronginen, The Netherlands. |
Also see a list of all my publications.