Exhibiting Fashion Symposium Speaker Biographies
Joy L. Bivins is chief curator of the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. As director of curatorial affairs at the Chicago History Museum, she collaborated on projects such as Teen Chicago and Inspiring Beauty: Fifty Years of Ebony Fashion Fair.
Dr. Christopher Breward was appointed director of collection and research at the National Galleries of Scotland in 2017. He was previously the principal of Edinburgh College of Art.
Judith Clark is a curator, exhibition maker, professor of fashion and museology, and co-director of the Centre for Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London (UAL).
Amy de la Haye is Rootstein Hopkins Chair of Dress History and Curatorship and joint director of the Centre for Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion, UAL. She has published extensively on fashion curation.
Circe Henestrosa is a Mexican independent fashion curator and head of the School of Fashion at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. She recently co-curated the exhibition Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up.
Colleen Hill is curator of costume and accessories at MFIT and co-curator of Exhibitionism: 50 Years of The Museum at FIT. She curated the exhibitions Fashion Unraveled and Fairy Tale Fashion.
Ana Elena Mallet is a Mexico City-based independent curator specializing in modern and contemporary design. She has curated several exhibitions in Mexico and the U.S. Her books include Silla Mexicana and Bauhaus and Modern Mexico.
Marie Riegels Melchior is an associate professor in European ethnology at University of Copenhagen. She researches contemporary museum processes and is co-editor of Fashion and Museums: Theory and Practice.
Tanya Melendez-Escalante is senior curator of education and public programs of MFIT. She is a contributing author to the books Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color and Exhibitionism: 50 Years of The Museum at FIT.
Dr. Alexandra Palmer is the Nora E. Vaughan Senior Curator at the Royal Ontario Museum. She has curated numerous exhibitions including Christian Dior, and she is author of the book Christian Dior: History and Modernity, 1947–1957.
Dr. Marco Pecorari is assistant professor and program director of the MA in fashion studies at The New School Parsons Paris. His monograph, Fashion Remains: Rethinking Fashion Ephemera in the Archive, will be published this year.
Dr. Julia Petrov is curator of Western Canadian history at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton. She writes about museology, fashion, gender, and popular culture, and is author of the book Fashion, History, Museums: Inventing the Display of Dress.
Simona Segre Reinach is an associate professor of fashion studies at Bologna University. She recently organized the exhibition Jungle: The Imagery of Animals in Fashion and is co-author of Exhibit! Showcasing Fashion: Exhibition Spaces and Brand Spaces.
Dr. Valerie Steele is director and chief curator of MFIT, and co-curator of Exhibitionism: 50 Years of The Museum at FIT. She and Colleen Hill are co-editors of the catalog Exhibitionism.
José Teunissen is dean of the School of Design and Technology at London College of Fashion, UAL. As a curator, she recently worked on State of Fashion 2018: Searching for the New Luxury in Arnhem, the Netherlands.
Elizabeth Way is an assistant curator of costume at MFIT. She co-curated the exhibitions Global Fashion Capitals and Black Fashion Designers and curated the current exhibition Fabric In Fashion.