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Professor Reina Lewis is awarded Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship

Written byKatie Moss
Published date 18 January 2024

Professor Reina Lewis at the Contemporary Muslim Fashion launch, De Young Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco, with LCF alum Yasmin Sobeih, whose athleisure range UNDER-RAPT was included in the exhibition, 2018.

University of the Arts London is delighted to announce that Professor Reina Lewis, Centenary Professor of Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion, has been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship.

The award will commence in October 2024 and provides research leave for 3 years to research and write a new single-authored book on fashion and the embodied expression of belief, worldview and religion.

Fashion has served belief around the world for centuries. Yet the contemporary ‘Western’ globalised fashion industry continues to regard itself as default secular, relegating religion to artistic ‘inspiration’; just as religion scholars mainly neglect dress and fashion scholars mostly neglect religion.

Bridging this gap, Reina’s work investigates fashion’s role in expressing materially how people see themselves and their beliefs and in shaping the means through which this can be articulated. This research widens concepts of religion to include philosophical belief and worldviews (spiritual, indigenous and secular) and changes understandings of the fashion industry’s nature and role.

The Leverhulme Trust is a highly esteemed provider of research funding in the UK. It provides grants and scholarships for research and education and operates across all academic disciplines, supporting talented individuals as they realise their personal vision in research and professional training.

Find out more about Reina Lewis' Major Research Fellowship on the Leverhulme Trust website.

Over the last 18 years LCF and UAL have supported my research on religion and fashion, willing to see this - initially - unusual combination as part of their creative and intellectual mission. In return, my research has supported UAL's work in incorporating diversity of religion and belief within measures to increase equity and inclusion for students and staff. As I research for my new book, the connection with UAL continues in my attention to fashion education as a pipeline for progressive change within the industry.

— Professor Reina Lewis, Centenary Professor of Cultural Studies at London College of Fashion