· Dr Lynn-Sayers McHattie awarded a Personal Professorship in Design Innovation
· Dr Henry Rogers awarded Personal Professorships in Fine Art
· Elio Caccavale awarded a Readership in Transdisciplinary Design Innovation
Images: Professor Lynn- Sayers McHattie, Professor Henry Rogers, Elio Caccavale
Three leading academics at The Glasgow School of Art have been recognised with Professorships and a Readership it was announced today, Wednesday 2 October 2019. The promotions recognise their achievements in original research and academic leadership, and under-score the reputation of The Glasgow School of Art as a world-renowned centre of Creative Education.
Dr Lynn-Sayers McHattie, an expert in Design Innovation based at The Innovation School at The Glasgow School of Art, has been awarded a Personal Professorship in recognition of her leading research particularly in the area of Design Innovation in the creative and cultural economy. Her research explores craft and textile practices that connect to the indigenous landscape and culture of island communities, and the role innovation can play in socio-cultural renewal. She is currently Director of Postgraduate Research at the Innovation School and Deputy Director of the SGSAH Creative Economies Hub.
Prior to her career in academia Dr McHattie worked internationally as a design consultant with a wide range of private and public sector bodies. Since joining The Glasgow School of Art, she has undertaken research with the British Council in the Crafting Futures research programme, which focuses on the empowerment of women in SE Asia, by fostering the development of creative skills for female artisans and designers. She has also acted as academic lead on Innovation from Tradition, an interdisciplinary research programme that explores how design can be used as a strategic resource to support creative practitioners in the Northern Isles of Scotland.
Dr Lynn-Sayers McHattie was Principal Investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council supported Design Innovation for New Growth(2017-19) delivered with follow-on-funding from an AHRC funded Knowledge Exchange Hub Design in Action(2012 – 2016) of which she Co-Investigator. Her research looked specifically at creative businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, a region which faces particular innovation challenges, including working in dispersed communities.
Also in the Innovation School,Elio Caccavale, has been awarded a Readership in Transdisciplinary Design Innovation. He has been personally involved with the MDes Design Innovation programmes since their initial inception, contributing to their development and growth over the years, and current international success.
Over the last sixteen years, Elio Caccavale has worked at the intersection of Design, Science, Bioethics and Science Education, developing transdisciplinary research projects which use design as a medium to explore ethical and social issues surrounding life sciences. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, The Wellcome Trust and The Arts Council England have funded his research projects.
Elio Caccavalehas authored chapters in numerous books, including Design as Future-Making published by Bloomsbury, a book which explores how design draws on and informs disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, anthropology, political science and psychology, and Creative Encounters: New Conversations in Science, Education and the Arts, published by the Wellcome Trust, a book that explores the many opportunities and questions provided and prompted by collaborations between artists, designers, educators and scientists.
Elio Caccavale’s research projects have been exhibited internationally at, for example, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Design Museum Triennale in Milan, the Science Museum in London, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taipei, the Design and Applied Arts Museum in Lausanne, the Royal Institution in London and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Previous to his appointment at the Glasgow School of Art, Elio has held a Visiting Lecturer position in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art, a Visiting Research Fellowship in the Cybernetic Department at the University of Reading and at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBE), Imperial College London. He has also held a Design Researcher position in the Interaction Design Studio at Goldsmith College and at the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences (PEALS) Research Centre at Newcastle University.
His international contribution to practice-based design research has been recognised with the acquisition of his research projects in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York
Meanwhile, the Head of the acclaimed MFA at The Glasgow School of Art, Henry Rogers, has been awarded a Personal Professorship in recognition of his leading work in the area of Contemporary Fine Art & Queer Studies.
Henry Rogers joined the GSA in 2017 taking over as Head of MFA from John Calcutt. Prior to his appointment in Glasgow he worked at Birmingham School of Art where he was latterly Head of Postgraduate Taught Studies responsible for all postgraduate provision in the school. He led the Art-based Masters Programme from 2009 – 2017. Whilst overall Director he was also Programme Leader of MA Fine Art, and in 2009 developed the MA Queer Studies in Arts and Culture, a unique award focused on material production, the first to be developed in the UK.
Rogers is an interdisciplinary practitioner working with drawing, painting, photography and writing. He is concerned with formality, mediation and mimesis in art with particular reference to queer theory and queer strategies in art practice. He has initiated projects addressing the impact of performance and performativity on art-based production.
In a long academic career Henry Rogers has supervised many PhD students to successful completion; been research assessor at Winchester School of Art and the University of Westminster; and external examiner at UWIC, Cardiff, Plymouth University and Nottingham Trent University. He is also currently, Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy Schools, London.
“These academic promotions recognise the calibre of teaching and research staff working at The Glasgow School of Art,”says Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam, Director of the GSA. “They also reflect the important role art schools and their researchers and teachers play in today’s creative and knowledge economy, and the contribution they make to addressing key issues facing contemporary society.”
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Note for Editors
· The Court of the University of Glasgow, on the recommendation of the University Board of Review confers the title of Honorary Professor on an individual nominated in accordance with The Glasgow School of Art procedures For full details see: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/mgrs-admin/hon-vis-aff/gsa/
· Design Innovationaddresses complex challenges through new design practices and bespoke community engagement. The Innovation School at the GSA aims to create and design better ways of living in the future, ones that will lead to collective wellbeing and sustainable growth for Scotland. The development and expression of collaborative creativity is core to Innovation School. Because the challenges addressed are complex only by bringing different groups together can we start to explore what the future may have in store.
· The GSA MFA is a two-year, multidisciplinary programme, and both of these fundamental facts are significant. A two-year programme of study offers students an extraordinary opportunity to analyse their studio practice in depth, and to modify, develop and secure it accordingly. The multidisciplinary context also ensures that such developments are protected against narrowly defined ambitions. To date the programme has produced five Turner Prize winners –Simon Starling, Richard Wright, Martin Boyce, Duncan Campbell and Charlotte Prodger and three nominees – Karla Black, Ciara Philips and Rosalind Nashashibi.