Kate Sekules is writing her doctoral dissertation on the history and theory of textile mending, conducting multidisciplinary research at the intersections of repair and conservation, archaeological anthropology, and dress history. She is Assistant Professor of Fashion History at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, lectures on the methodologies and contexts of textile repair at NYU, FIT, Columbia College, and Tufts, among others, and has presented research at multiple symposia, including Textile Society of America, American Studies Association, and Association of Dress Historians, UK. As a mending practitioner, she has exhibited her work widely, and taught workshops at many institutions, including RISD Museum, Winterthur Museum, and the Textile Arts Center, New York. Her book MEND! A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto was published by Penguin in 2020, and she recently contributed several entries on mending technologies to the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of World Textiles (forthcoming). Previous publications include a memoir, The Boxer’s Heart (Random House, 2000, 2012) and over 200 articles in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Fast Company, Interior Design, Food & Wine, The New Yorker, and the Guardian, among others. She holds an MA in Costume Studies from New York University, and a BA in English and Drama from Manchester and Middlesex Universities, UK.