Art, Design, Fashion & Cultural Historian, Critical Theorist & Anthropologist
Dr. Kathryn A. Hardy Bernal, Ph.D., M.Phil. (Hons., First-class), B.Art.Th. (Hons., Distinction), is an art, design, fashion and culture historian, critical theorist, and anthropologist. She has been recognised by the Humanities and Law panel of the Tertiary Education Commission of New Zealand as a specialist in the fields of History, History of Art, Classics, and Curatorial Studies. She has extensive experience within the tertiary teaching and learning sector, including senior leadership and lectureship positions. Her previous roles include Head of Research and Postgraduate Studies at the Yoobee Colleges, across New Zealand (incorporating Yoobee College of Creative Innovation and South Seas School of Film and Television); and Programme Leader (Deputy Head) of the Department of Fashion and Textiles, Senior Lecturer/Lecturer in Fashion, Textiles, Product, and Graphic Design, and Coordinator of Contextual and Theoretical Studies, at Auckland University of Technology. She has also taught Art History and Theory, and Design History, Theory and Aesthetics, at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Dr. Hardy Bernal’s transdisciplinary Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy in Visual and Material Culture, crosses the intersections of art, design, fashion, costume, anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, religion, and cultural studies. Completed by written research, her thesis explores the Mexican development and transmigration of a Japanese subcultural fashion movement, and subsequent shifting ideologies and psychologies, through methodologies of critical art theory, and qualitative ethnographic studies, particularly in relation to indigenous, colonial, postcolonial, traditional, historical and contemporary philosophies, practices and beliefs, undertaken by field studies and research trips to Japan and Mexico.
Leadership expertise includes academic staff research management, mentorship, and development, and editorial administration. She has successfully convened several international academic conferences and collaborative symposia and is published in peer-reviewed academic press journals and books. She maintains a strong network of professional academic peers, nationally and internationally.
Kathryn A. Hardy Bernal 