Dr Jessica Bugg is Dean of the School of Media and Communication, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London and was awarded a PhD from the same institution in 2006. Previously she was Associate Dean Research and Innovation in the School of Fashion and Textiles and the ERA (Excellence in Research Australia) 2018 Leader for the College of Design and Social Context at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. With over twenty years leadership, teaching and research experience in graduate and post graduate education in the UK and Australia, she has led, developed, validated and examined Undergraduate and Post Graduate programmes in Fashion Design, Design for Performance and Fashion Promotion and Imaging.
Jessica is an experienced PhD supervisor and examiner and has supervised three PhDs and one Masters by Research to completion. Her research leadership is evidenced in her previous academic research facing roles and in her own internationally recognised practice led research that has been submitted in REF 2014 and ERA 2015 and 2018. She is an active researcher and leader in her field and holds positions on editorial boards, publishes extensively, reviews for high profile journals and is on steering committees including the Critical Costume International bi annual conference.
As a designer and visual artist working with fashion, performance, art and film Jessica’s interdisciplinary research is concerned with phenomenological experience of dress and developing embodied methods for clothing design and communication in the site of the body. Drawing on physical experience, memory, cognition, haptic and sensory perception she collaborates with wearers, other artists and audiences to heighten and understand communication through design.
Jessica's work has been screened and performed in internationally significant venues including the ICA, APT Gallery, London, ACMI Australian Centre for Moving Image in Melbourne and the Wye Gallery, Berlin for Berlin Fashion Week 2013. She has curated exhibitions including Fashion & Performance: Materiality, Meaning, Media at the Design Hub Galleries, Melbourne 2015 and an earlier iteration for the Arnhem Mode Biennale 2013. Her designs for contemporary dance have been performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barge House South Bank, the Linbury Space, Royal Opera House and The Place, London.