Fashion in Transit

Christine McDonald is an MFA candidate (‘22) at Cornell University; she received her BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University (‘18). Four years before coming to Cornell, Ms. McDonald divided her time between two cities, working as a sculptor and archivist in Queens, NY and Philadelphia, PA. She is a sculptor, new media artist and writer; her artistic work focuses on a research-based practice involving methods of sculpture as storytelling and as an application of investigative knowledge and performance. Each construction is a constellation of actions taken to arrive at an object, or a good metaphor.

Denise Nicole Green is a fashion anthropologist, curator, and Director of the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection. She is a faculty member in Fashion Design in the College of Human Ecology and holds appointments in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, American Studies Program, and the graduate field of Anthropology. Professor Green is an award-winning curator, documentary filmmaker, fashion designer, and writer. Her forthcoming book, “Fashion and Cultural Studies,” is co-authored with Susan B. Kaiser and will be published by Bloomsbury in December 2021.

Joshua Johnson is senior student-athlete on the Men’s Track & Field team double-majoring in Africana Studies and Classics. He is an aspiring curator dedicated to bridging the gap between academia and the public. Mr. Johnson’s interests are centered around producing new and exciting ways of engaging with both culture and history. As a Rawlings Cornell Presidential Research Scholar, his research is based on creating an online exhibition that recontextualizes the way people view the ancient classical Mediterranean world. Mr. Johnson aims to provide an Afrocentric approach to the field of classics to challenge the dominant Eurocentric approach. 

Kat Roberts is a second-year Ph.D. student in the department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. Her primary research interests are sustainable interventions in U.S. apparel production, with a particular focus on upcycling and waste diversion, and how technology intersects with handmade crafts. Before beginning her studies at Cornell, Ms. Roberts taught adult crafting courses and lectured in the Business and Technology of Fashion at CUNY’s New York City College of Technology, as well as authored a number of craft books.

Leah Sweet is a museum educator and art historian. She is an alum of the Graduate Program in the History of Art at Williams College (2000) and the doctoral program in Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University (2014). Dr. Sweet came to Cornell and the Johnson Museum of Art from Parsons, the New School for Design, where she was Assistant Professor of Art History. As the Curatorial Coordinator of Academic Programs at the Johnson, she pairs with faculty to support object-based, interdisciplinary teaching and to create installations, programs, and interpretation. Dr. Sweet’s own research interests and publications include postwar German art and how art history intersects with representations of fatness in visual culture.

Mona Maher is pursuing her Ph.D. in Apparel Design at Cornell University. She earned her M.S. in Environmental Design with a concentration in Apparel Design from Texas Tech University and her MBA from Sharif University of Technology. Ms. Maher has over 14 years of experience in academic research, apparel design, and project management. In the field of apparel, she participated in the Size North America project, which is the latest size survey in the U.S. to update anthropometric data and examine the reliability of standard size charts. Ms. Maher has also studied people’s reactions to their 3D body image to find out if it affects body image satisfaction and self-esteem. Her research interests include sustainable design, human factors, apparel fit and size, and application of advanced technologies in product development such as 3D body scan and virtual prototypes.

Rick Geddes is founding Director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy. Dr. Geddes’ work has appeared in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review; Journal of Regulatory Economics; Journal of Legal Studies; Journal of Law and Economics; and Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization. He is author of the 2011 AEI book “The Road to Renewal: Private Investment in U.S. Transportation Infrastructure.” Dr. Geddes teaches courses at Cornell on infrastructure policy, corporate governance, microeconomics, and the regulation of industry. He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Economics and Finance from Towson State University.