SEUNG-HEE LEE RECEIVES ‘SCHOLAR OF THE YEAR’ HONORS
By Pete Rosenbery
Seung-Hee Lee believes her active research in merchandising is important to be an effective instructor for her students.
Lee’s work earned her recognition as the College of Applied Science and Arts’ inaugural “Scholar of the Year” in May. During the 2015 calendar year, Lee, a professor in fashion design and merchandising, had work that included two peer-reviewed research articles, eight presentations at international conferences, three presentations at regional symposia or research forums, two best research paper awards at international conferences and two external grants. That steady work continues in 2016.
The award, initiated this year, is based on faculty research activity over a calendar year period.
“A student has a right to spend their time most efficiently and effectively for learning,” said Lee, who came to SIU Carbondale as associate professor in 2013, and became a professor in July. “Through the semester, I try to get to know my students more personally. Then, I customize lectures, discussions and study projects to their needs and experiences. In each class, I make sure students understand my teaching, and whenever necessary, give further explanations with real-world application examples and hands-on projects.”
Her most recent research interests fall into five major subject areas:
- Fashion theory or model development.
- Consumer behavior.
- Brand marketing.
- Social responsibility marketing.
- Fashion digital technology.
Lee said she was interested in fashion for a long time, and credits her father recommending it as a college major based upon the potential for growth and success at the professional level. She earned her bachelor’s degree in clothing and textiles from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. She earned her master’s degree and doctorate, both in consumer and textiles sciences, from The Ohio State University.
“The fashion industry has been one of the main industries which have been very influential to Korean economic development and my dad expected that in in the future, the size of the global fashion market would be growing more due to globalization,” she said.
Lee explained she believes research should also help people and organizations conduct business in the most efficient and effective ways and to also enhance quality of life. She believes the fashion industry needs to have its own research models or theories rather than from psychology, sociology or marketing in explaining the fashion phenomena. Lee and Jane Workman, professor emerita, fashion design and marketing, worked to develop a model that can describe how consumers adopt new fashion items, Lee said. The model has been tested and resulted in a paper recently accepted for publication in the International Journal of Consumer Studies.
Lee is also heavily involved in professional service activities that contribute to her education and research. She has been involved in many professional organizations including the International Textiles and Apparel Association, European Marketing Association American Marketing Association and several Korean associations relating to marketing, consumer psychology and textiles and clothing. She is a vice president for “Society of Open Innovation: Technology, Market and Complexity,” and associate editor for the “Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market and Complexity.”
Lee believes service activities are “a very significant and essential component” to an academic life, along with teaching and research, and provides “endless chances to learn, share knowledge, and establish the relationships among academic areas or between academic and non-academic environments.”