Dr Melanie Levick-Parkin
MFA Design Course Leader, Senior Lecturer Design
Summary
After abandoning a teenage crush on photography, I studied visual communication and graphic design, then re-incarnated an advertising creative for a number of years, before sidestepping into an academic career. My research interests revolve around Design Anthropology, Co-design and other participatory approaches, which I am exploring in relation to projects focusing on heritage, archaeology and cultural tourism, with a feminist, post-colonial lens. My doctorate at the University of Sheffield focuses on female making practices and I am involved in a variety of research projects ranging from explorative visual communication projects, to teaching enhancement project and the EU funded meSch Project.
About
The theme that links all of my endeavours is my interest in creative communication strategies, which take advantage of any media you can lay your hands on, and finding people and their ideas, alive or deceased, very interesting indeed.
I have presented numerous papers and held workshops at a broad range of conferences in relation to Art and Design pedagogy, Participatory Design, Design Anthropology, Service-Design, and Creative Entrepreneurship. I am an external examiner and advisor, and have been a link tutor for Partner Programmes. I have been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy for over ten years, am a member of the Classical Association and the EAA, as well as acting as a committed lion tamer to my four lovely sons.
On a more personal note I am passionate about Cretan culture and history, and am always looking for projects that aim to sustainably engage a wider audience with its treasures to the benefit of the local communities and their heritage.
Specialist areas of interest
Design Anthropology, Design for Heritage and Archaeology, Co- and Participatory Design Practices, Art and Design pedagogy, Service-Design, and Creative Entrepreneurship
Teaching
Subject area
Visual Communication
Courses
BA Graphic Design and MA Design
Modules
Translate & Transmit, Graphic Design in Context, MA Project
Research
How Women Make – Investigating process, motivation and agency in female making practice through Design Anthropology. Doctoral Studies at the Department of Education University of Sheffield. (2015 - Present)
Visual Translations of ancient heritage – re-contextualising ancient European script through contemporary visual communication methods and media. ADRC Sheffield Hallam Art and Design Research Centre (2014 - Present)
Theories made Practice – Using Design Anthropology to enable creative students to interrogate their making processes. Teaching Enhancement Project funded by Sheffield Hallam University STA LTA (2015 - Present)
The un-closed visual communication circle – Theorising existing visual communication metaphors in design teaching. Teaching Enhancement Project funded by Sheffield Hallam University STA LTA (2015 - Present)
Making the transient permanent – exploring the translation of personal data into material forms via the 3D printing of memory objects. ADRC Sheffield Hallam Art and Design Research Centre (2014 - 2015)
What we talk about when we talk about entrepreneurship - Investigating the relationship between Creative Entrepreneurship and Employability in the minds of Students and Staff engaged in enterprise teaching and learning. Teaching Enhancement Project funded by Sheffield Hallam University STA LTA (2014 - 2015)
Researcher meSch EU Project - Material Encounters with Digital Cultural Heritage
ADRC Sheffield Hallam Art and Design Research Centre (2013 - Present)
Researcher Imagine Connectivity Project
Create & Connect: Connecting female artisan craft producers in Zanzibar with tourist markets through Participatory Action Research and Design Thinking methodologies.
ADRC Sheffield Hallam Art and Design Research Centre (2013 - 2014)
Publications
Journal articles
Levick-Parkin, M., Stirling, E., Hanson, M., & Bateman, R. (2020). BEYOND SPECULATION – Using speculative methods to surface ethics and positionality in design practice and pedagogy. Global Discourse An interdisciplinary journal of current affairs. http://doi.org/10.1332/204378920X16055409420649
Levick-Parkin, M. (2020). “It Tells You What it Wants to Be” How Women Make, with Immanence, Love, Decay and other Transgressions. PAD. Pages on Arts and Design, 18, 329-366. http://e-womens-making-lowres/
Levick-Parkin, M. (2017). The values of being in design: Towards a feministdesign ontology. GENDER : Zeitschrift fur Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 9 (3), 11-25. http://doi.org/10.3224/gender.v9i3.02
Mcentaggart, P., Levick-Parkin, M., & Wood, J. (2016). Making the Transient Permanent : exploring the translation of personal data into material forms via the 3D printing of memory objects. Making Futures, 4. http://makingfutures.plymouthart.ac.uk/
Hanson, M., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2016). Create & connect: empowering female artisan craft makers in Zanzibar through design thinking. Making Futures Journal, 4. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t9JpMRMf3feNqPgxj8VXOZca2fKv3dyy/view
Levick-Parkin, M. (2014). Creativity, the muse of innovation : how art and design pedagogy can further entrepreneurship. Industry and Higher Education, 28 (3), 163-169. http://doi.org/10.5367/ihe.2014.0202
Conference papers
Stirling, E., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2020). Agent Makers: The City as an Agentic Heritage Interface. In CONNECTIONS: EXPLORING HERITAGE, ARCHITECTURE, CITIES, ART, MEDIA. Conference, Canterbury, Virtual. Amps (Architecture, Media, Politics and Society)
Levick-Parkin, M., Stirling, E., Hanson, M., & Bateman, R. (2017). AGENT MAKERS - The un-masking of environmental agency through design for speculative social innovation. In Making and Unmaking the Environment : Design History Society Annual Conference, University of Oslo, 7 September 2017 - 9 September 2017. http://www.makingandunmaking.net/programme/
Stirling, E., Hanson, M., Bateman, R., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2017). AGENT MAKERS – Exploring speculative design concepts as the interface for change within the city. In International Visual Methods Conference, Singapore, 16 August 2017 - 18 August 2017. http://www.visualmethods.info/
Levick-Parkin, M. (2017). Radical mundanity – how feminist inquiry and creative Practice can unbind us from the ontological entrapment of contemporary design epistemology [abstract only]. In Jonas, W., & Erlhoff, M. (Eds.) New Experimental Research in Design / NERD, Braunschweig, Germany, 15 June 2017 - 16 June 2017. Braunschweig: Birkhäuser BIRD Board of International Research in Design
Levick-Parkin, M. (2016). Hidden in plain sight - engaging in the visual construction of European identities and narratives through ancient European script. In Europe in Discourse: Identity, Diversity, Borders, Athens, 23 September 2016 - 25 September 2016. http://europeindiscourse.eu/
Levick-Parkin, M. (2015). Visual translations of ancient heritage - re-contextualising ancient European script through contemporary visual communication methods and media [abstract only]. In Pillatt, T., Moore, K., & Johnston, B. (Eds.) CHAT Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory, Sheffield, 30 October 2015 - 1 November 2015.
Levick-Parkin, M., & Carroll, K. (2015). The Art of Unknowing – The joy of amateur practice as a space for emancipation from the constraints of academic discipline. In Material Culture in Action: Practices of making, collecting and re-enacting Art and Design, Glasgow School of Art, 7 September 2015 - 8 September 2015. https://materialculturegsa.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/programme-at-a-glance.pdf
Levick-Parkin, M., Flouda, G., & Wood, J. (2015). Visual translations of ancient heritage – re-contextualising ancient European script through contemporary visual communication methods and media. In EAA European Association of Archaeologists Conference, Glasgow, 2 September 2015 - 3 September 2015. http://eaaglasgow2015.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/EAA-GLASGOW-FULL-PROGRAMME.pdf
Hanson, M., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2015). Design thinking together: because tacit knowledge is tacit power. In Discourse, Power and Resistance15 (DPR 15th annual conference), Goldsmiths University of London, 15 April 2015 - 17 April 2015. https://dprconf.wordpress.com/accepted-abstracts-and-symposia/
Levick-Parkin, M., Mcentaggart, P., Gwilt, I., & Wood, J. (2015). Enhancing museum visits through the creation of data visualization to support informed choices and the recording and sharing of experiences. In The Pararchive Project Open access community storytelling and the digital archive, University of Leeds, 27 March 2015 - 28 March 2015. http://pararchive.com/conference/abstracts/
Levick-Parkin, M., & Hanson, M. (2015). Design thinking together : how to share the ‘designerly’ way of looking at things in order to co-create insights relevant to research participants. In Design Anthropology Seminar 3: Collaborative Formation of Issues, Moesgard Museum Aarhus Denmark, 22 January 2015 - 23 January 2015. https://kadk.dk/en/center-codesign-research/research-network-design-anthropology
Levick-Parkin, M. (2014). Service design for the heritage experience in archaeology. In 8th AMA SERVSIG International Service Research Conference 2014, Thessaloniki, Greece, 13 June 2014 - 15 June 2014. http://www.servsig2014.uom.gr/
Levick-Parkin, M. (2013). Service design for Rural Heritage Tourism. In SY-Cultour: Cultural values and tourism development in rural areas, Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 17 October 2013 - 18 October 2013. http://www.sycultour.eu/documents/international-networking-conference/conference-agenda
Levick-Parkin, M. (2013). Creativity - innovations muse: how art & design pedagogy can further entrepreneurship. In NHIBE 8th International Conference: "New Horizons in Industry, Business and Education", Chania Crete, 30 August 2013 - 2013.
Corazzo, J., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2013). ‘The importance of being idle : making the case for creative spaces in art and design education’. In Higher Education Arts and Humanities Conference, Brighton, 5 May 2013 - 6 May 2013.
Book chapters
Mcentaggart, P., Gwilt, I., Levick-Parkin, M., & Wood, J. (2020). Enhancing museum visits through the creation of data visualisation to support the recording and sharing of experience. In Communities, Archives and New Collaborative Practices. (First). Policy Press
Levick-Parkin, M. (2018). Freedom to make: Radical mundanity and its anarchic undertones in female making practice. In Erlhoff, M., & Jonas, W. (Eds.) NERD – New experimental research in design: Positions and perspectives. (pp. 55-81). Berlin: De Gruyter: http://doi.org/10.1515/9783035617429
Levick-Parkin, M. (2015). What we talk about when we talk about entrepreneurship :insights into students’ and lecturers’ thoughts on learning and teaching creative/cultural entrepreneurship. In Kuhlke, O., Schramme, A., & Kooyman, R. (Eds.) Creating Cultural Capital : Cultural Entrepreneurship in Theory, Pedagogy and Practice. (pp. 178-188). Pioneering Minds Worldwide
Exhibitions
Levick-Parkin, M. (2016). Visual Translations of Ancient Script : Re-contextualising the Linear A and Linear B scripts through contemporary visual communication methods and media. British School at Athens. http://www.visualtranslations.org/british-school-at-athens/
Levick-Parkin, M., Flouda, G., Wood, J., Mcentaggart, P., & Hatfield, H. (2016). Visual Translations of Ancient Script : Re-contextualising the Linear A and Linear B scripts through contemporary visual communication methods and media. Archaeological Museum Heraklion. http://www.visualtranslations.org/archaeological-museum-heraklion/
Presentations
Hanson, M., & Levick-Parkin, M. (2014). Create & Connect : wearable stories. Presented at: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2014, RGS, London, 2014
Other activities
External Examiner
External Advisor
Reviewed Journal Articles and Conference submissions.
Postgraduate supervision
Currently supervising several design and art based PHDs. Specifically interested in supervising PHDs exploring Design Anthropology, Making Practices and Heritage, and concepts of Design Justice.
Completed PHD Supervisor Training