Public scholar: Vanessa Mardirossian

Vanessa Mardirossian holds a doctorate from Concordia’s Individualized Program (INDI), where her research-creation engaged an iterative dialogue between textile design, chemistry and environmental health. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in fashion design (Duperré, Paris) and a Master of Arts in textile design (UAL, London). Vanessa worked as a textile designer for more than 20 years across fashion sectors. Concerned about the environmental impact of this industry, she focused on developing textile ecoliteracy for designers. This strong ecological knowledge aimed to avoid textile toxicity at the early stages. Her research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She won several awards from Hexagram, the Sustainability Action Fund, The Textiles and Materiality Research Cluster and the Colour Research Society of Canada (CRSC). She also taught at the École Supérieure de Mode ESG-UQAM since 2017, where sustainability was at the heart of her pedagogy.