At the Academy of Management Meetings in Hawaii a few weeks ago, I crossed paths in Academy Arts with Pamela Nybacka It took me very little time to realize that she is an excellent candidate for AACORN. Consequently, I talked with her briefly about this and, accordingly, now nominate her for membership. Below in Pamela's rich description of herself and her work/life -- you will discover myriad reasons to support my nomination and to welcome her aboard. Cheers, David C.
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My name is Pamela Schultz Nybacka and I am a PhD candidate at Stockholm University School of Business, Sweden. My supervisors are Professor Pierre Guillet de Monthoux - some of you are bound to know him - and Thomas Bay. My educational background is twofold: literature on one hand and business administration on the other. I am also a Project Manager of the research project Bookonomy and it revolves around the specific economy and organizing of books. My research interests range from art, aesthetics, book studies, art management, organizational change, consumer practices, cultural policy, etc.
Current research...
In my dissertation project I am working with reading groups among others, and in order to complement the group interviews I have let the readers visualize their embodied and contextualized reading practices by means of drawings and/or paintings. Since reading groups are a social and collective book phenomenon I figured that I needed a method that could capture this quality. Hence, I let the members from two reading groups do paintings together, and just as I hoped, the resulting images completely threw me out of my orbit and generated a completely different theoretical perspective for my work. Suddenly, Georges Bataille's notion of "general economy" struck me as particularly important... Also, the method has made me think a lot about the ways to re/present these images and I feel a increasing need to discuss these matters with fellow researchers.
Anyhow, art and aesthetics seem to be what make my life and research tick. (Even when I write papers for ordinary PhD courses, I find myself writing about these things.) Regarding aesthetics, so far I have written one paper (in addition to my dissertation) that is currently under review. In that paper, I allowed myself to be critical of aesthetics within organization studies, trying to acknowledge and problematize the limits of Kantian (and Aristotelian) aesthetics. Having done that, I am now keen to continue with research on the concept of "impossible aesthetics", a concept that may prove to be complementary to my study of art/culture and excess (which is very much Bataille so far...). I also plan to engage in a project that revolves around the economy of everyday life play and creativity, a project that I hope may be of interest to the network of AACORNians (?).
At present, I am finalizing my PhD and will be finished by the next summer (2006). I am on the international job market and hope to go someplace where I can continue my research and teaching in the arts. I will also apply for post-doctoral grants and fellowships too. (Any ideas and advice on the subject matter is welcome.)
... and other currents
I have just installed a sewing machine in my living room, and rediscovered the joys of sewing for myself and my family. My research gives a lot of input to my ideas for sewing. I have never enjoyed shopping much, but with the sewing machine I go into a hypnotic state and create stuff in completely unpredictable ways... It is more a matter of sculpting, you know. Just like everything else... :-D
Wishful and wistful regards,
Pamela
David A. Cowan, Professor
Management Department
School of Business
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
(513) 529-3689...office
(513) 529-6992...fax
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