Apparel and Textile Design Scholarship: Shared Knowledge, Dissemination, and Evaluation

Abstract

Apparel and textile (AT) design scholarship can be classified in diverse ways. As a professional organization, International Textile and Apparel Association is in a unique position to lead in identifying what constitutes contributions to research in the field. Defining, presenting, and evaluating design production as scholarship is critical, especially as the broader design disciplines become more rigorous and academic institutions become more focused on evaluation metrics. Our purpose was to examine AT design scholarship through the lens of three critical components of research: shared knowledge, dissemination, and evaluation. These three components of research should be points of reference for AT design scholarship in moving forward to establish a unified vision of research that focuses on designed objects as valuable forms of scholarship. Additional work is necessary to identify core values that represent AT design knowledge, disseminate in formats that facilitate contributions to research, and measure the impact of design scholarship.