FEATURED AUTHOR
Melanie Sarantou
Melanie Sarantou is a Professor of Social Design at Kyushu University. Her research draws on social design and arts-based research in marginalised communities. Her intense involvement in Namibian craft and design development spanned over two decades. This included mapping this field in her PhD research (2010-2013), lecturing on Design and Fashion at the University of Namibia (1997-2007) and business development with Namibian women entrepreneurs and SMEs (2005-2009).
Biography
Melanie Sarantou (PhD) is Professor of Social Design at Kyushu University in Japan. She is also Adjunct Professor of social design at the University of Lapland, investigating how arts and narrative practices impact on marginalised women in communities in Namibia, Lapland, Russia and Australia. In her role as Research Fellow (2020 – 2023) she explored the role of arts in societies that exist on the margin of Europe in the European Commission-funded Horizon 2020 project titled ‘Action on the Margin: Arts as Social Sculpture’ (AMASS). Melanie was also the coordinator of the large AMASS consortium for three consecutive years. She is a member of the Service Design Research Group and her past research focused on social design and arts-based research in marginalised communities in Finland, Australia and Namibia. Her research and art explored concepts of marginality, which in this project is defined by conditions of isolation and migration, emphasised by the geography of the project in the Arctic and far south.Education
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PhD, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 2014
MBA, Australian Institute of Business, Adelaide, 2016
MTech, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, 2009
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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Arts-based Research, Social Design, Fashion Design
Personal Interests
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Social Design, Improvisatory practices, Textile Design, Service Design, Wellbeing, Postcoloniality and Decolonisation
Websites
Books
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