AUP student taking a photo of the Seine during Orientation.

ACADEMICS

Hybridity of Method and Theory: Research and Work in the Margins – Fashion & Other Case Studies

University Room: Omid & Gisel Kordestani Rooftop Conference Center (Q-801)
Omid & Gisel Kordestani Rooftop Conference Center (Q-801) | 6, rue du Colonel Combes, 75007 Paris
Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 17:00 to 20:00
with a talk by Anja Aronowsky Cronberg: ‘Vestoj: A View from the Margins

At this session, faculty, graduate students and working professionals will present their work and reflect with the audience on its methodological, theoretical and professional implications. We start with a short faculty presentation on current research in progress. Then, three AUP graduate students will present their research, as they are at different phases of their thesis writing, and we will discuss the 'research potential'; and how theory and method interact. How might these themes develop into professional projects or doctoral research? What type of disciplinary and institutional collaborations could emerge? What is the current role, strength and potential of AUP? We will then explore the links between research of students, faculty and working professionals. With a focus on the fashion industry, we consider the possible connections with professional practice and theory. How might working and collaborating ‘in the margins’ offer new possibilities and insights for students, faculty and working professionals?

Hosts:

  • Robert Earhart (International Business Administration)
  • Renate Stauss (Global Communications)
View the Program

Part I

Robert Earhart & Kate Zhang (IBA Faculty)

Ethical Paradoxes in Ecotourism: Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan Province China. Since completing his PhD on sustainability consulting, ‘greenwashing’ and ethical partiality, Robert, has dedicated his research activity to themes around the paradoxes of management practice and sustainability. In 2017 he worked with Kate Zhang in the IBA department on eco-tourism and how ethical paradoxes emerge in the rapidly developing ecotourism sector in China as it touches the livelihoods of ethnic minority communities in rural Yunnan Province. 

 

Shannon Henry (MSIM Student)

Complexity & Culture at the American Hospital Nigeria

An ethnography on healthcare for women and families

 

Farley Sawyer (MSIM Student)

Authentic Leadership and Object-Oriented Ontology

 

Renate Stauss (GC Faculty)

Mapping Fashion Education: Dimensions, Context, Futures

Over the past decades fashion, both conceptually and materially, has seen a significant expansion. This growth of fashion as idea, object and image, as global socio-cultural phenomenon and business has been mirrored by the expansion of fashion education. Today fashion can be studied in countless courses at different levels globally and digitally. Yet, substantial quantitative and qualitative discrepancies are emerging between fashion education and the world we live in. While there has been a discursive explosion around the subject of fashion since the 1990s, fashion education has received very little analytical attention. Our research and development project aims to evaluate fashion education in its current dimensions, context and challenges; explore its potential and create an international conversation and network to contribute towards its redirection.

 

Facilitated Discussion & Outcomes

Hugo Letiche (Prof. of Care, Complexity and Organisation)

 

Part 2

‘Vestoj: A View from the Margins’ by Anja Aronowsky Cronberg

(Creator and Editor in Chief of Vestoj, The Platform for Critical Thinking on Fashion)

Vestoj is a platform for critical thinking on fashion. Published annually since 2009, it bridges the gap between theory and practice in fashion, and to date includes an annual journal, an online site and live performative events, themed around topics such as ‘material memories,’ ‘shame,’ ‘power’ and ‘time.’ Due to its cross-disciplinary approach to fashion, and regular contributors from both academia and industry, each Vestoj project is a reflection and interpretation of current thinking and practice around ideas of fashion and its contribution to society. Past contributors include David Byrne, Kenneth Anger, Professor Elizabeth Wilson, Professor Caroline Evans, David Armstrong, Nick Cave and Rick Owens, and advisory board members include Professor Frances Corner, Hamish Bowles, Professor Christopher Breward, Dr Valerie Steele and Tim Blanks. Vestoj has been invited to curate and perform 'Vestoj Salons' at MoMA PS1, Palais de Tokyo, Fondation Galeries Lafayette, the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography, the Sharjah Biennial and Berliner Volksbühne. Since 2014, Vestoj has been patroned by London College of Fashion where its founder, Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, is now also a research fellow.

 

Renate Stauss, Hugo Letiche, Robert Earhart, Anja Cronberg, and Albert Cath

Reflections on Hybridity of Method and Theory – Closing Discussions with Audience