The key aim of the FCVC network is to bring established, early career and emerging scholars and practitioners together to form a friendly, inclusive and supportive community.
The Fashion, Costume and Visual Cultures (FCVC) network was co-founded in 2018 by Dr Sarah Gilligan (UK) and Petra Krpan (Croatia). The key aim of the FCVC network is to bring established, early career and emerging scholars and practitioners together to form a friendly, inclusive and supportive community.
The FCVC network encourages membership by those individuals whose work explores key issues, theoretical debates, new methodologies, practice based research and case studies tied to fashion and costume design and their distinct, yet simultaneously symbiotic relationship within contemporary visual cultures.
The Governing Board of FCVC comprises of the following roles:
FCVC President: Dr Sarah Gilligan
Sarah Gilligan is the Course Tutor for the HE level FDA Design for the Creative Industries programme at Hartlepool College (UK), where she also teaches Art, Design and Contextual Studies on the FE level programmes in the School of Creative and Professional Studies. In 2018, Sarah was awarded the highly competitive and prestigious British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (BARSEA) for the Fashion, Costume and Visual Cultures Network project. To date, she is the only person working in a UK FE college to have received a BARSEA award. Sarah’s academic research interests and publications centre on the construction, transformation and performance of gendered identities in contemporary visual culture. She is particularly interested in costume, fashion and the body on and beyond the screen in film, TV drama, advertising and photography. She has published articles in Fashion Theory, JAPCC, and Film, Fashion and Consumption journals, together with chapters in a number of edited book collections and her guide Teaching Women and Film (BFI, 2003). She is currently working on co-guest editing special issues of Clothing Cultures, Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion and Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture (Intellect), together with new collaborative research on costuming and identities in Spanish cinema with Jacky Collins (Northumbria University, UK) and her own practice based research exploring tactile transmediality. Sarah is also the Reviews Editor for Film, Fashion and Consumption journal, a member of the Steering Group for Critical Costume and a member of the European Popular Culture Association.
FCVC Network Vice President: Petra Krpan
Petra Krpan is an assistant at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Textile Technology, Department for Fashion Design, where she teaches Fashion and New Media, Performance and Fashion, Fashion Theory I and II. She completed her education at the Faculty of Textile Technology, University of Zagreb, BA Fashion Design and MA Fashion Theory, and at the University of London, London College of Fashion with an emphasis on Fashion Journalism and Fashion Media Business. She is about to complete her PhD programme at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb in fashion theory and her academic research interests centre upon fashion and visual culture, the influence of media in fashion as well as fashion performance.
Responsibilities of the governing board
As the founding co-convenors of the FCVC network, the President (Sarah Gilligan) is responsible for ensuring the focus, promotion, development and sustainability of FCVC in the UK and on an international basis. Additionally, the President will oversee the creation and implementation of the annual conference programme and key communications. The nomination rounds for new Steering Group members will be overseen by the President, who will work to ensure that this process is transparent and fair in accordance with the FCVC network’s objectives. The President will have the deciding vote on all Governing Board and Steering Group issues, if a decision cannot otherwise be met.
The Vice President (Petra Krpan) will assist and support the President in the activities outlined above, and will also take specific named responsibility as Area Chair for leading the promotion, development and long-term sustainability of FCVC in South-East Europe.
The FCVC Conference Host
The FCVC Conference Host will be nominated by the hosting institution (or FCVC President) to be a member of the Governing Board from acceptance through to the final report being submitted on the event. The FCVC Conference Host should liaise with the host institution(s), local cultural and creative organisations and funding bodies, together with the President (and Vice President) in order to ensure that the annual conference is staged in time and in accordance with the ethos of FCVC.
FCVC issupported by a steering group who will provide advice with key strategic decisions and / or assist in a range of responsibilities on a fixed term basis (minimum one year) to assist in the development, promotion, growth and sustainability of the FCVC network. The number of steering group members is not formally set. Members of the steering group will nominally serve a term of three to five years.
Members of the steering group will comprise of established, early career and emerging scholars, practitioners and professionals from academia and relevant cultural and creative organisations and freelance occupations. The broad inclusive membership is in order to ensure that a diverse range of experience, skills and perspectives informs the development, sustainability and future direction of the network.
Standard membership of FCVC network will be open to all those demonstrating a professional interest in the academic study and / or creative practices connected to Fashion, Costume and Visual Cultures.
Further details on the FCVC steering group, membership and constitution will be discussed and distributed at FCVC2019
FCVC is committed to supporting social and cultural regeneration through the creative and cultural industries, and therefore welcomes membership from marginalized communities, groups and individuals. Event hosts for the annual conference will need to demonstrate how they will support the local creative and cultural economy, and to ensure that a diverse range of voices are heard at the conference.
FCVC places collegiality, collaboration and conviviality as central to the ethos of the network, and aims to provide a welcoming, inclusive and supportive space for all members irrespective of affiliation, rank, age, background, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion or impairment.