- Dr Sarah Smith, Dr Susannah Thomson, Dr Gordon Hush and Jimmy Stephen-Cran awarded Personal Professorships
- Dr Marianne Greated, Dr Daniel Livingstone, Patrick Macklin, Robert Mantho, Graham Ramsay and Dr Michael Stubbs awarded Readerships
- Dr Steven MacGregor and Ilpo Koskinen appointed as Professor Honorary Professors
Ten leading academics across The Glasgow School of Art have been recognised with Professorships and Readerships it was announced today, Thursday 27 August 2020. The promotions recognise their achievements in original research and academic leadership, and underscore the reputation of The Glasgow School of Art as a world-renowned centre of creative education. Additionally, two leading experts in design innovation have been appointed Honorary Professors in the Innovation School.
“These academic promotions recognise a wealth of talent in the teaching and research staff here at The Glasgow School of Art,” says Penny Macbeth, Director of the GSA. “They are also a reflection of the key role that art schools play in today’s creative and knowledge economy, and the contribution they make to addressing key issues facing contemporary and future society.”
Dr Sarah Smith, Dr Susannah Thomson, Dr Gordon Hush and Jimmy Stephen-Cran have each been awarded a Personal Professorship.
Formerly a Reader in Visual Culture, Dr Sarah Smith has been awarded a Personal Professorship in Research.Sarah Smith has been working in Higher Education in the UK and Ireland since 1995. Her research expertise is in artists’ moving image and feminist art and she supervises PhDs in these areas. Sarah Smith regularly publishes in high ranking peer reviewed journals and is currently completing a monograph on artists’ moving image to be published by Bloomsbury in 2021. She also has extensive experience of peer review for academic publishing and funding councils. Sarah Smith is currently Director of REF Development at the GSA.
Head of Doctoral Studies at the GSA, Dr Susannah Thompson, has been awarded a Personal Professorship in Contemporary Art & Criticism. An art historian, writer and critic, Susannah Thomson has worked in higher education since 2006. Her research has been widely published in journals including Visual Studies, Journal for Writing in Creative Practice, Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History and Visual Culture in Britain. Alongside academic research. She has also worked as a freelance critic, art writer and curator since 2000.
Dr Gordon Hush, Head of Innovation School, has been awarded a Personal Professorship in Innovation and Society. Gordon Hush had led the Product Design department at the GSA since 2007 and helped steer the emergence of Design Innovation as a subject of academic study at Master’s level.
Jimmy Stephen-Cran, is awarded a Personal Professorship in Fashion and Textiles. Appointed Head of Department in 2001 Jimmy Stephen-Cran successfully consolidated and reframed the previous Departments of Printed andKnitted Textiles and Embroidered and Woven Textiles, and introduced both postgraduate and undergraduate programmes in Fashion Design. Jimmy Stephen-Cran has also designed his own label collection for Barneys, New York and collaborated with high-profile designers such as Chanel and Donna Karan. One of his dresses was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for their permanent collection and private clients have included royalty and media personalities.
Dr Marianne Greated, Dr Daniel Livingstone, Patrick Macklin, Robert Mantho, Graham Ramsay and Dr Michael Stubbs have been awarded Readerships
Current acting Head of Painting and Printmaking, Dr Marianne Greated is awarded a Readership in Painting. An artist, researcher and lecturer with a focus on contemporary painting practice, Marianne Greated has exhibited locally and internationally including solo exhibitions in the UK, Belarus, Greece, Denmark and India. Her research interests range from contemporary painting, painting in an expanded field and the panorama to the relationship between sound and vision, the urban environment, representations of sustainability and DIY culture. Previously Marianne Greated set up the acclaimed Glasgow-based artist-run gallery Switchspace, exhibiting many of the most influential contemporary artists in Scotland
A Programme Leader in the School of Simulation and Visualisation Dr Daniel Livingstone becomes a Reader in Games & Learning Technology. Daniel Livingstone’s background is in computer science, with particular emphasis in computer graphics and the educational applications of game technology across computing, heritage and medical application areas. He was the principal investigator on the JISC Virtual Worlds and VLEs project which involved collaborators in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, The Open University and the University of Ulster.
Head of Interior Design at the GSA, Patrick Macklin, becomes a Reader. Patrick Macklin is leader of both the undergraduate and postgraduate Interior Design programmes at the GSA and his research is directed towards the nature, quality and value of the interior in urban contexts. Alongside his academic career He is also a design practitioner and consultant, co-founding Lapland – a confederation of designers and artists concerned with the temporary occupation of commercial city space manifest in pop-up/guerilla stores and promoting the multiple and the edition.
A Senior Lecturer and Stage 4 leader in the Mackintosh School of Architecture Robert Mantho becomes a Reader in Collaborative Architectural Teaching. Robert Mantho is an architect, teacher, and researcher who practiced architecture in N.Y.C., London, Portland, and Vermont, working on a wide range of building projects, community projects and competitions. His research is focused on urban spatial configuration, digital processes in the generation of space and collaborative design
Graham Ramsay, is awarded a Readership in Contemporary Art Practice. Ramsay has taught on the MFA Programme at the GSA since 2006 and as an artist he has worked collaboratively with John Beagles since 1997. Two key interweaving currents of interest drive the work of Beagles and Ramsay: the reoccurring use of a kind of fictionalised self-portraiture and in broad terms, a humourous examination of aspects of contemporary consumer culture. They have explored these themes in sculptures, installations, video, performance and drawings, which have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Beagles and Ramsay also edit the journal ‘Uncle Chop Chop’, which has featured contributions from numerous artists and writers over the past decade.
Lecturer in Painting and Printmaking, Dr Michael Stubbs, is awarded is awarded a Readership in Contemporary Painting. An artist who exhibits internationally, Stubbs was the subject of a solo exhibition at The Glasgow School of Art in January 2020 and over the last three years has shown work in group exhibitions in China, Germany and Switzerland as well as in the UK.
Two leading experts in design innovation have been appointed as Honorary Professors in the Innovation School: Dr Steven MacGregor, an internationally recognised expert in the area of health and well-being, and Ilpo Koskinen, an academic who has a significant track record in the areas of social design and associated research practices.
Dr MacGregor is the founder of the Leadership Academy of Barcelona (LAB), which helps global clients including Telefónica, McKinsey and Santander. In his role as Honorary Professor, Dr MacGregor will advise the Innovation School as it looks to develop new BDes and Integrated Masters programmes focused on health and well-being
Dr Koskinen was formerly a professor at Aalto U, Helsinki and the PolyU in Hong Kong. He will help to develop the Innovation School’s expansion into field of social design and associated research practices.
“We are also delighted to welcome Steven MacGregor and Ilpo Koskinen Honorary Professors and look forward to working with them as we develop projects in the Innovation School,” says Penny Macbeth.
“I’m truly humbled to receive this new post at one of Scotland’s premier institutions,” says Steven MacGregor. “The area of design and well-being offers tremendous potential for the challenges we all face today, and I’m excited to play my part in using well-being to create a healthier and fairer society.”
“I am delighted to know that I have become an honorary professor of the Glasgow School of Art,” says Ilpo. “My history with the school goes back almost two decades. I have learned to respect GSA as a truly forward-looking institution that always manages to maintain its legacy. It is one of the global frontrunners in finding new ways to turn design into a force that improves society through products and services, but also through social institutions.”
For full biographies see Notes for Editors
Ends
For further information contact
Lesley Booth
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Notes for Editors
Biographies
MARIANNE GREATED
Dr Marianne Greated is Acting Head of Painting and Printmaking at GSA. Marianne’s practice-based research focuses on contemporary painting, landscape, representations of sustainability, sound and vision and women painting. Her artwork has been exhibited locally and internationally including solo exhibitions in the UK, Belarus, Greece, Denmark and India.
Marianne has published in the areas of sound and vision, expanded practice, colour and painting. Projects include cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional collaborations with UK/international partners (EPSRC, Scottish Government, Exhibition of 1851, Heritage Lottery funded). She is a Member of the Reading Landscape research cluster and has recently co-edited a Special Edition of Visual Culture in Britain on Women Painting in Scotland (1940 – 1980).
In 1999 Marianne co-founded the artist run moving gallery Switchspace showing many of Scotland’s most influential artists (Cathy Wilkes, Karla Black, Sue Tompkins, Beagles and Ramsay). Her Board Membership includes Scottish Artists’ Union, Radius Glasgow, Talbot Rice Art Gallery, SWG3, The Royal Glasgow Institute and Market Gallery. From 2007-10 she worked for the Scottish Arts Council leading international residencies, organisations and individual artist funding in Scotland (770K).
Previous GSA roles include Academic Lead International, Cross School Course Lead, Academic Lead The Anatomy of Employability (60K HEA), Programme Leader International Foundation and Academic Lead Phoenix Bursary (750K Scottish Government). She is External Examiner for the BA Fine Art at Salford University and previously the MA at Bucks New University. She currently supervises four PhD students.
GORDON HUSH
Head of the Innovation School, Gordon has headed the Product Design department at GSA since 2007 and helped steer the emergence of Design Innovation as a subject of academic study at Masters level incorporating Service Design, Citizenship, Environmental Design and, with the University of Glasgow, International Management. In addition, he supervises and examines PhD candidates, contributes to the EPSRC-funded TEDDI2: APAtSCHE – Aging Population Attitudes to Sensor Controlled Home Energy project (in collaboration with colleagues at GSA and the University of Strathclyde
Gordon is a Sociologist operating within the domain of Design and, as such, is interested in the relationship between social theory and design, particularly the interaction with and ‘consumption’ of designed products in contemporary society. This includes social change, technological innovation and changes in design process, specifically the interaction between human beings and designed products (artefacts, services or experiences). Interested in exploring the affinities between ‘post-phenomenological’ approaches, the debates around Actant-Network-Theory and the theorisation of subjectivity found in post-Operaismo Italian thought Gordon is keen to explore the role of design(ers) in contemporary formulations of ‘human experience’ and, in particular, the relation between subjective affect (as experience) and the realm of (im)material culture (products).
DANIEL LIVINGSTONE
Daniel Livingstone is the Programme Leader overseeing taught postgraduate provision at the School of Simulation and Visualisation.
Daniel’s background is in computer science, with particular emphasis in computer graphics and the educational applications of game technology across computing, heritage and medical application areas.
Daniel was the principal investigator on the JISC Virtual Worlds and VLEs project which involved collaborators in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, The Open University and the University of Ulster
PATRICK MACKLIN
Patrick is Head of Department and Programme Leader for both the Undergraduate and Masters programmes in Interior Design, having established the latter in 2011. He sits on the Council of Interior Educators (IE), the national subject body for the discipline.
His research is directed towards the nature, quality and value of the interior in urban contexts, with particular focus on atmosphere in the built environment; the development of representations of the spatial, via digital and analogue edges and interfaces; interiority and sound; and the cultural significance of the industrial ruin.
Alongside his academic career Patrick is a design practitioner and consultant, co-founding ‘Lapland’, a confederation of designers and artists concerned with the temporary occupation of commercial city space manifest in pop-up/guerilla stores and promoting the multiple and the edition. Lapland has also shown work in established cultural venues including The British Council, Edinburgh; The Lighthouse, Glasgow; Tramway, Glasgow; ‘Made in Glasgow’, Brussels; and ‘Primavera del Disseñy’, Barcelona.
From 1998–2009 he was an Associate Artist with the award winning theatre company Suspect Culture and responsible for design of the company’s brand, print, digital presence, costumes and sets. He has also worked as ‘Frozen River’, with clients across the arts and the public sector
ROBERT MANTHO
Robert Mantho is an architect, teacher, and researcher. He has practiced architecture in N.Y.C., London, Portland, and Vermont, working on a wide range of building projects, community projects and competitions. He taught at the Architectural Association, the University of East London and Norwich University and been a visiting critic at schools in North America, Europe and the U.K. His work in the collaborative practice, Locus, has been exhibited in the U.S and the U.K. He has published articles and books related to his research interests. Robert’s research is focused on urban spatial configuration, digital processes in the generation of space and collaborative design. Robert is the Stage 4 Leader at the Mackintosh School of Architecture at The Glasgow School of Art.
GRAHAM RAMSAY
Graham Ramsay has taught on the MFA Programme since 2006. As an artist he has worked collaboratively with John Beagles since 1997. Two key interweaving currents of interest drive the work of Beagles and Ramsay. Firstly the reoccurring use of a kind of fictionalised self-portraiture and secondly, in broad terms, a humourous examination of aspects of contemporary consumer culture. Since 1996 they have explored these themes in a series of sculptures, installations, video, performance and drawings, which have been exhibited nationally and internationally
Beagles and Ramsay also edit the journal ‘Uncle Chop Chop’, which has featured contributions from numerous artist and writers over the past decade.
SARAH SMITH
Professor Sarah Smith has been working in Higher Education in the UK and Ireland since 1995. She has a BA in Fine Art Painting (NCAD, Dublin, 1994), an MA in Film Studies (UCD, 1995), and a PhD in Artists’ Moving Image from (GU, 2007). Sarah is currently GSA’s Director of REF Development. She has held external examining posts at Crawford College of Art, University of West of Scotland, University of Edinburgh, Dublin Business School and the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire.
Her research expertise is in artists’ moving image and feminist art and she supervises PhDs in these areas. She regularly publishes in high ranking peer reviewed journals and is currently completing a monograph on artists’ moving image to be published by Bloomsbury in 2021.
Sarah’s has extensive experience of peer review for academic publishing and funding councils, including Bloomsbury, Yale University Press, Screen Bodies, Feminist Media Studies, Paul Mellon and the Royal Society of Edinburgh(RSE). Sarah is a member of: REF2021 Panel 32: Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory; the Arts & Humanities Panel for Fundação para a Ciência e a Technologia (FCT), Portugal; and the AHRC’s Peer Review College.
MICHAEL STUBBS
Michael Stubbs practice is an overlaying or process-based combination of the methodologies of poured abstract painting and pop art signs. I examine the relations between the exploratory act of creating paintings, their context and presentation and how that includes an awareness of the role of digital and virtual images. The intention is to discover how, through the act of making, contemporary abstract painting becomes a material activity that co-exists with and reflects digital representation. By encompassing embodied gesture, form, colour, line, chance, depth and opticality, the digital is referenced in painting by the absence of hand-gestured expression with the use of stencils and clip art alongside industrial processes and materials; flatness, layering, household paints, varnishes and more recently spray paints
The stencils and clip art are sourced from the internet; digital symbols, emoji’s, vanitas skulls, dice, flames, words, decorative flourishes, brush-marks, etc. (with attendant art historical or popular cultural meanings). The paints, supports and working tools are purchased from builder’s merchants. This use of utilitarian ‘non-art’ materials and symbols asks questions about the value of paintings medium specificity or the high art language of material abstract purity (Clement Greenberg) and replaces it with an expanded set of popular cultural and decorative references.
SUSANNAH THOMSON
Professor Susannah Thompson is an art historian, writer and critic. Susannah holds a PhD in History of Art from the University of Glasgow, an MPhil in Art and Design in Organisational Contexts from The Glasgow School of Art and an MA (Hons) in History of Art from the University of Glasgow.
Before taking up her position at The Glasgow School of Art in 2017, Susannah worked at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), University of Edinburgh, as Director for Postgraduate Research (2014-17), Co-Director of Visual Culture (2011-14) and Lecturer in Visual Culture (2006-2017) in the School of Art.
Susannah’s research has been widely published in journals including Visual Studies, Journal for Writing in Creative Practice, Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History and Visual Culture in Britain. Her doctoral research (2010) examined artists’ writings in Scotland published between 1960-1990, focusing on alternative and experimental modes of writing and post-criticism, writing as a part of visual art practice and the role of samizdat and ephemeral publications within contemporary art in Scotland. Her course, Art Writing, was a core component of the MA Contemporary Art Theory programme and ran between 2010-2017 and was the first of its kind in Scotland. As well as her role as Head of Doctoral Studies she is a primary and co-supervisor for five PhD students, with three completions to date.
Alongside academic research, Susannah has also worked as a freelance critic, art writer and curator since 2000.
JIMMY STEPHEN CRAN
Jimmy Stephen-Cran is Head of the Department of Fashion and Textiles at the Glasgow School of Art. He is an internationally recognised academic, designer, exhibitor, researcher and speaker. Stephen-Cran holds a Master’s Degree in Fashion Design from Central Saint Martins and a Bachelor’s Degree in Textile Design from Glasgow.
He was appointed Head of Department in 2001 where he successfully consolidated and reframed the previous Departments of Printed and Knitted Textiles and Embroidered and Woven Textiles. As part of the refocus he worked on ensuring each specialist area could offer traditional hand, domestic, semi industrial and digital processes. He also embedded the use of two of GSA’s excellent study resources: Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT), by way of providing visibility and focus for scholarship in textile design at GSA; and Archives and Collections Centre (ACC), on the strength of it being one of the largest archive collections of any UK art school.
To complement provision, he created a postgraduate programme in fashion and textiles in 2004 as well as an undergraduate programme in fashion design in 2010. This redefined the academic footprint of the Department of Fashion and Textiles at The Glasgow School of Art and encapsulated the interdependent characteristics of the fashion and textiles industry.
He has designed his own label collection for Barneys, New York and collaborated with high-profile designers such as Chanel and Donna Karan. One of his dresses was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for their permanent collection and private clients have included royalty and media personalities.
Stephen-Cran has exhibited nationally and internationally throughout USA, Japan and Europe notably, Sotheby’s London and Sotheby’s New York. He has also had solo exhibitions in London. These led to extensive media articles. He has also curated exhibitions, published a book, journal articles and conference papers and has spoken at conferences in the UK and India.