Laura Beltrán-Rubio

Dr Laura Beltrán-Rubio is a researcher, curator, and educator, specializing in the history of art and fashion. Her research explores the construction and performance of identities through artistic expression, with a broad interest in global Indigenous fashion and textiles. More specifically, her work analyzes the importance of Indigenous ways of knowing in the development of fashion and textile arts in the Americas from the early colonial period to the present-day, while uncovering the endurance of colonialist dynamics in contemporary fashion.

Laura is Lecturer in Design Cultures at De Montfort University. She completed her PhD at The College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA) and an MA in Fashion Studies at Parsons School of Design (New York). She has previously taught at Parsons, William & Mary, and Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). She writes for The Fashion and Race Database and hosts the podcast Redressing Fashion. As a public-facing scholar, Laura’s mission is to expand the narratives of fashion to create more diverse, equitable, and socially just societies.