Biography
Dr Silvia Bombardini is an Associate Lecturer at UAL, teaching at the London College of Fashion and the London College of Communication. She holds a PhD in Visual Sociology from Goldsmiths University, where she researched shoplifting as a feminist practice at the turn of the 20th century, and the shoplifter’s clothes in particular. Her research was part of the ERC-funded ‘Politics of Patents (POP): Re-imagining citizenship via clothing inventions 1820-2020’ project. Her interests include all forms of subversive behaviour in consumer culture – from the 1946 Nylon riots to the Black Friday hordes of today, and she has argued for a revaluation of counterfeits from postmodern and postcolonial perspectives. Silvia worked as a journalist before turning to academia, has written for several international magazines and websites, and used to run a monthly ‘Coming of Age’ column for Shanghai-based magazine Modern Weekly China, on how the trends followed by young people around the world come to reflect broader cultural and political shifts. Silvia is also an occasional film curator: she has organised screenings in theatres, galleries and community cinemas, and worked with ASVOFF and MUBI.