Research/Creative Scholarship

All faculty members in the School are expected to produce records of scholarship that reflect their disciplinary foci and the attributes of an individual faculty member’s scholarly activity may vary across sub-disciplines.  Indicators of a faculty member’s scholarship record include both quality and quantity of exhibitions and/or published work.   In addition to scholarly publications, creative scholarship, and funded research, other scholarly activities including but not limited to presenting at refereed professional meetings, presenting papers before learned societies, etc. should be considered.

To achieve “excellent” in the category of scholarship at the time a faculty member stands for promotion, she/he should have established a scholarship program which demonstrates an impact upon his/her discipline.  Component of evaluation for scholarship are categorized and outlined below.

a.  Recognition.  A TT faculty member’s scholarly reputation is a reflection of the quality, extent, and creativity of his/her research output and is, therefore, an issue that is carefully evaluated for advancement.  To be recommended for advancement, a candidate must provide evidence that his/her work has had an impact on the discipline.  Recognition by professional peers includes, for example, receipts of awards, citations or research, inclusion of images of work in publications, reviews of work in publications, invited lectures, and special honors on any type, including editorship of journals, invitation to service on boards and juries at an international or national level, curating of significant exhibitions, inclusion of work in significant public or private collections, and commissioned work.

b.  Publications.  Evaluation of publication record will include an assessment of quality and impact on the field, as well as of quantity.  Publication in journals having stringent reviewing policies is more valued than publication in journals that are less rigorous in their editorial control.  The contribution made by publishing a book-scholarly/professional/textbook is judged, in general, on the amount of new content.  Research on teaching, pedagogy, student performance, and classroom instruction as well as external funding are included in this area.

c.  Exhibitions.  Evaluation of the record of exhibitions will include an assessment of quality and impact on the field.  Exhibition in venues having stringent jury process is more valued than exhibition in venues that are less rigorous in their jury process. Consideration is given to documented showing of original work in solo, invited group/mixed or juried exhibitions and competitions.  Significance of the exhibition may be considered in relation to prestige of the sponsoring organization, venue, curator, juror, and/or inclusiveness/scope e.g., international, national, regional, or local.

d. Grants.  Evaluation of the record of grants will include an assessment of quality and amount of grants received. Potential for external funding is limited in the fashion field, therefore, grant proposals submitted but not funded, and/or proposals pending may be considered for positive assessment.  However, while valuable, grants do not replace the importance of research dissemination.

e.  Presentations.  Presentation of papers of original research/creative work will be evaluated according to significance of the venue and sponsoring organization with greater weight given to refereed presentations or peer-invited presentations to scholarly audiences. 

f.  Related Activities.  TT faculty members are expected to be active participants in the field.  Some evidence of outside professional activity is necessary for advancement.  Examples of such activity would be curating an exhibition, non-refereed publications based on scholarly work, etc.

Expectations in scholarship for promotion to Full Professor are higher than for promotion to Associate Professor.