Conference Organisers
Shaun Borstrock
Shaun Borstrock is in pursuit of luxury, a notion that seems far removed from today's world of excessive consumption. He works as an independent consultant to luxury brands and associations all round the globe. They have included Thomas Pink, Fortnum and Mason and The British Luxury Council and Alessandra Gradi former Creative Director at Asprey.
A Phd candidate in the Department of Design at Goldsmiths College, University of London, the focus of his thesis is the 'Popularisation and Democratisation of Luxury'. It considers and establishes how notions of luxury, designer, consumerism and manufacture have played a role in determining the emergence of the 'designer luxury' market.
Shaun is also writing a book, a series of personal accounts and opinions which explore current perceptions of luxury with the intention of recovering, reviving and disseminating important historical aspects of luxury in order to expose the impact of influence and marketing on the perception of luxury brands today.
As Associate Head of School in the Faculty for the Creative and Cultural Industries at The University of Hertfordshire his remit includes the BA (Hons) Product Design, BA (Hons) Interior and Spatial Design, Bsc Industrial Design, BA (Hons) Graphic Design and Illustration and BA (Hons) Fashion. He teaches on both under graduate and post-graduate programmes in the Department of Art and Design . He also supervises post-graduate research at Masters and PhD levels, including projects on branding, fashion, product and graphic design and illustration. His success in the fashion industry, collaboration with industry and personal viewpoint make him a valued contributor to education. s.borstrock@herts.ac.uk
Dr. Steven Adams
Steven is Research Tutor for the Faculty of Art and Design and Associate Head of the School of Art and Design in the Faculty for the Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Hertfordshire. He teaches on post-graduate programmes in the Department of Art and Design and supervises post-graduate research at Masters and PhD levels including projects on landscape representation and cultural geography, Courbet, Positivism and science in 19th century France, and landscape, representation and the picturesque in eighteenth century England.
Dr Steven Adams' research interests include landscape, representation and national identity in early nineteenth century France, landscape gender and conceptions of Bohemianism, and the social and political production of space. He is the author of Barbizon and the Origins of Impressionism published by Phaidon Press and co-editor of Gendering Landscape Art published by Manchester University Press, 2001. Works in progress include publications and conference papers on politics and space in nineteenth century France, concepts of revolution, desire and fantasy, and Sevres porcelain as a tool for political instruction in Napoleonic France.
Alongside other colleagues in the Faculty, Steven is also involved in practice-based research in art and design and its theoretical base, a theme addressed by the Faculty's Centre for Research into Practice. s.adams@herts.ac.uk
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