What specific resources or programs offered by AAAE have been the most valuable to you?
AAAE is a robust platform for all ambitious, enthusiastic and dedicated arts management educators to contribute to the development of the field with innovative research, ground-breaking scholarship, pedagogy and creative practice. There are no similar associations around the world where members would have so many opportunities to share their academic and professional developments to get it exposed to highly target audiences. In the past decade I was closely involved in the AAAE community and was privileged to make meaningful contributions to the development of the AAAE global efforts in academic research and education.
For example, in 2022-23 I worked as a part of the international team of scholars representing AAAE as a Graduate Research Lead to contribute to the development of the Graduate Standards in Arts Administration Education, which was published in 2023. Graduate Standards in Arts Administration Education represents the latest and best thinking on critical topics in postgraduate education in arts administration, arts management, and cultural management. My contribution to the Standards is the Chapter “Research Methods” which advocates that research in the arts and cultural management should be a highly dynamic endeavor, strategically designed to proactively address a rapid development of the arts management profession to equip students with new academic skills, advanced digital/data literacies and a strong set of transferable research knowledge to be able to better navigate evolving creative economies and changing social conditions.
Have you collaborated with other members or found mentorship through AAAE?
In 2023 I was selected as a Mentor for the inaugural cohort of AAAE’s Mentorship Program. I was matched with my mentee, Dr Youngaah Koh, an Assistant Professor of Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship at Miami University. I was thrilled to work with Dr Youngaah Koh who joined my large-scale research project on Mapping Global Impacts of Hallyu, The Korean Wave, co-sponsored by the Korea Foundation. Apart from the digital creative praxis research output, such as a web-based application Hallyu Tracker, the project has resulted in the International Symposium which will lead to multiple academic publications to follow the media coverage. Dr Koh and I were the only representatives of the inaugural cohort of the Mentorship Program who were invited to give a talk to share their Program experience at the AAAE Annual Conference in New York in June 2023. Our presentation attested to the excellency of teaching, learning and research outputs that the Mentorship Program can generate by bringing together established academics with emerging scholars.
