Biography
I am a Reader in Applied Art and Design with seventeen years of experience in Higher Education and seven years as an award winning practicing jeweller and silversmith.
My research is wide ranging in approach, encompassing diverse areas of art, design and heritage but with a particular emphasis on innovative, sustainable materials. I was returned in the RAE (2008) at Heriot-Watt under the ‘Art and Design’ unit of assessment and in the REF (2014) at Edinburgh Napier University for the ‘Communication, Cultural and Media Studies’ unit of assessment and led UoA 32 for the current REF.
My grant funding and awards total over 200K and I have published a number of peer reviewed journal, conference papers and book chapters.
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and deliver high quality teaching and learning in visual, critical and contextual studies for multi-disciplinary, under and post graduate design students. In 2010 I was awarded the Graduates Teaching Prize for lecturer of the year and was nominated for the 2010 Teaching and Learning Oscars, ‘Guiding Hand’ award at Heriot Watt University. I was appointed as external examiner for the BA (Hons) in Fashion Communication at Southampton Solent University (2013 – 2017).
I have been recipient of several prestigious prizes as a practicing jeweller including the Platinum Awards and the Goldsmiths Metal Bursary in 1990 and the New Designers/Goldsmiths jewellery prize in 1991. After receiving my first degree, I spent a year as ‘artist in residence’ within the Jewellery and Silversmithing department of Edinburgh College of Art. I have exhibited extensively throughout the United Kingdom and my work in platinum and gold form part of the Museum of Scotland’s permanent collection.