The heart of the university: the people at Brand University of Applied Sciences
Prof. Dr. h.c. Shan Fan
President of the Brand Acdemy | Professorship of Intercultural Art
Studied art in China and Hamburg
Main area of research: transformation from tradition to modern – towards innovation in contemporary art
2006: awarded the Medal for Art and Science by the Senate of the City of Hamburg; received an honorary doctorate from BUCKS New University in the United Kingdom
Founding president of the Brand University of Applied Sciences and of the School of Communication Design, Beijing Normal University Zhuhai, China
Member of the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg since 2014
Founder of the Dachina Brand Summit (formerly: Dachina Markendialog)
Since 2021: Honorary President and Associate Professor at the Institute of Brand Science at Zhejiang Wanli University
More than 30 solo exhibitions and 15 group exhibitions in museums and galleries in over 10 countries
More than 30 publications in the form of exhibition catalogues and art historical publications
Works in many public cultural institutions and well-known private collections in Germany and China
Vice-President for Education and Head of MBA Media Management program and B.A. Marketing and Communication program
Studied International Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria and at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Doctorate on the subject of extended warranties and consumer decisions with a major in finance, insurance science and risk management
Several years of experience in e-learning and online study programmes
Practical experience outside of academia as a portfolio manager, management consultant and founder
International scholar expertise: University of Michigan, University of Southern California, University of South Australia
Highly recognized publications: Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Business Research, etc.
Nominated for early career awards and support of research fundings: Early career award for women University Kiel; Heinz-Wüstenberg-Foundation; Academy of Marketing Science; DAAD scholarship
Studied communication sciences at the University of Münster and at Rollings College, Winter Park, Florida, USA while teaching at the Department of Foreign Languages
Experience as a strategic planner and consultant at güttler+klewes communications management, Düsseldorf
Head of Planning at Dievision Agentur für Kommunikation, Hanover
Planning and Client Service Director at Gyro International, Hamburg
Studied product design, philosophy and aesthetics at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design
Doctorate entitled “Between contingency and necessity: The role of design in contemporary society” at Offenbach University of Art and Design
Research focus: The design of the next society, digital design, systemic and difference-theoretical foundations of design
Since 2024 Associate Professor for Visual Communication Zhejiang Wanli University
Since 2017 Member of the editorial board of BIRD – Board of International Research in Design
From 2016 – 2018 substitute professor for theory and practice at the Kunsthochschule Kassel
Teaching experience since 2010: FH Potsdam, FH Bielefeld, Hochschule für Künste Bremen, Freie Universität Bozen, Brand University, Zhejiang Wanli University Ningbo and Northwestern Politechnical University Xi’An
Studied sociology, German studies and history at the University of Konstanz and Trinity College Dublin
Many years of experience in market research and creative agencies, e.g. at Trendbüro, SturmundDrang, Kolle Rebbe, \TBWA, Vasta Schröber
International market research and strategic planning and conception for brand manufacturers such as Beiersdorf to BMW, from beer to flooring, as well as B2B strategies for intermediaries/distributors
Research and development of branding innovations and design processes for internal and external branding strategies for agencies and companies
Professorship for Statistics and Forecasting Methods
13 years of business experience in finance and statistics as managing director at the Institute of Quantitative Financial Analysis (Kiel, Germany)
Responsible for a wide range of projects in the field of applied statistics such as Data management, Market research, Model- and software-based decision making, Risk management, Optimisation, Liquidity and Debt management, Empirical market analysis, Forecasting
Teaching experience in Quantitative Methods, descriptive and inferential statistics at the University of Kiel and Munich
Member of the academic staff of Prof. Stefan Mittnik, PhD. at the University Kiel, Federal Republic of Germany
Member of the Society for Financial and Insurance Econometrics, Munich
Scientific experience in the field of empirical financial analysis
He is a multi-award-winning academic and has repeatedly been ranked among the top 1% researchers in business administration in Germany
In his core research areas of brand management and social media marketing, he has published five books and more than 50 international peer-reviewed articles, including in the world's leading journals Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Science.
Leben in Entlastung (2015). UVK Verlag Konstanz (Herbert von Halem Verlag).
Recent Lectures
Dec 2024, conference discussant, Global Commonality: Imagining Communities in the Digital Age" Academic Conference and 2024 Zhejiang Communication Association Annual Meeting, Ningbo China.
Nov 2024, „Conceptualizing Brands”, 5th Mobile Studies Congress, Zhejjiang Wanli University, Ningbo.
Oct 2024 „Brand and Myth“, International College of Fashion and Design, Donghua University, Shanghai.
Oct 2024 „Marke und Mythos“, Deutschen Woche 2024, Tongji University, Shanghai.
May 2024: “The Evolution of Heritage Brands: An Educational Approach” (with Prof. Zhang Yiping), 3rd Sino-German Brand Innovation Conference, Hamburg, Germany
Dec 2023: Wenzhou Polytechnic (WZPT) (online lecture), “A.I. and the Future of Design Education”
Dec 2023: Roundtable Talk #3 “AI and Its Impact on Branding”, Mobile Studies Congress 2023, Hangzhou, China (venue at Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo)
Nov 2023: “NFT, AI and the End of Art” lecture and discussion with Prof. Dr. Lu Xinhua (Tongji University, Shanghai), at the Modern Art Museum, Shanghai (also produced as a podcast for MAM)
Oct 2023: Panel Discussion on Brand and Fashion, 2023 Ningbo Fashion Fair
Sep 2023: “A.I. and the Future of Design Education” The Third International Conference on Smart Products Through-Life Design (SPTLD2023), Northwestern Polytechnical University Xi’an (NPU)
Ongoing Research Projects
Generative A.I. in Content Creation and Synthetic Media – the Chinese POV (with Prof. Peter Kabel). Survey Link
Visual artist, exhibited at the Fotogalerie Wien, GRASSI Museum Leipzig, Kunsthalle Leipzig, Fotogalleriet Format Malmö, Triennale di Milano, Centre national de l’audiovisuel Luxembourg, MAMAC Liège, Einstein Forum Potsdam, and Shenzhen Fine Art Institute
Studied visual arts, art history, theory of literature, and physics in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Leipzig, and Berlin
Postgraduate diploma (Meisterschülerin) from the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig)
PhD in Art and Visual History from Humboldt University Berlin (From Photography to fMRI: Epistemic Functions of Images in Medical Research on Hysteria, transcript 2022; open-access); recipient of the Rudolf Arnheim Prize for Young Academics
Worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and University of Zurich
Affiliated researcher at the University of Zurich; guest researcher at the Technische Universität Berlin; member of the History Philosophy and Culture (HPC) Working Group of the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT) Collaboration
Teaching experience at the Academy of Arts BK in Belgrade, Brand University of Applied Sciences, University of Passau, Northwestern Politechnical University Xi’An and China Academy of Arts Hangzhou
Recent Publications:
Muhr, Paula. “‘What We Thought Was Unseeable’: Die mediale Konstruktion der ersten authentischen empirischen Bilder eines Schwarzen Lochs.” In “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing?”: Formen und Funktionen medialer Artefakt-Authentifizierung, edited by Amrei Bahr and Gerrit Fröhlich, 19–49. Bielefeld: transcript, 2024.
Muhr, Paula, Yating Pan, Charlotte Tumescheit, Ann-Kathrin Kübler, Hatice Kübra Parmaksiz, Cheng Chen, Pablo Sebastián Bolaños Orozco, Soeren S. Lienkamp, and Janna Hastings. “Evaluating Text-to-Image Generated Photorealistic Images of Human Anatomy.” Cureus 16, no 11 (2024): e74193. https://doi.org 10.7759/cureus.74193
Muhr, Paula. “The Biologically Vulnerable Brain: Emerging Neuroimaging Research on the Roles of Early-Life Trauma, Genetics, and Epigenetics in Functional Neurological Disorder.” In Vulnerability: Real, Imagined, and Displayed Fragility in Language and Society, edited by Silvia Bonacchi, 111–28. Göttingen: Brill/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2024.
Muhr, Paula. “The Unobserved Anatomy: Negotiating the Plausibility of AI-Based Reconstructions of Missing Brain Structures in Clinical MRI Scans.” In Plausibilisierung und Evidenz: Dynamiken und Praktiken von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, edited by Antje Flüchter, Birte Förster, Britta Hochkirchen and Silke Schwandt, 169–92. Bielefeld: Bielefeld University Press, 2023.
Muhr, Paula. “The ‘Cartographic Impulse’ and its Epistemic Gains in the Process of Iteratively Mapping M87’s Black Hole.” Media+Environment 5 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1525/001c.88163.
Recent Talks:
“(Re)Constructing the Hysterical Body Through Artistic Research.” 16th Annual Conference of the International Society for Cultural History Embodied Histories: Cultural History of, in, and through the Human Body, University of Potsdam, 6 September 2024.
“An Artistic Approach to Exploring Unstable Text-Image Relations in Generative AI and the Underlying ‘Statistical Unconscious.’” Workshop Künstlerische Praktiken postdigitaler Verflechtungen, Universität Osnabrück, 11 July 2024.
“Seeing and Understanding the ‘Unseeable’: The EHT Images of M87* Black Hole as Epistemic Tools.” 6th Scientific Understanding and Representation (SURe) Workshop, London School of Economics and Political Sciences, 18 June 2024.
“The ‘Pivotal’ Images of Black Holes and Their Epistemic Power.” 3rd annual meeting of The History, Philosophy, & Culture (HP&C) Working Group of the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, Harvard University, 28 May 2024.
“Developing ML Classifiers for Image-Based Diagnosis of Functional Neurological Disorder: Challenges and Implications.” 11th International Philosophy Medicine Roundtable, 10 May 2024, online.
Current Research Projects:
“UnRealBody: Inoculating Young People Against Harm from Unrealistic AI-Based Body Images,” funded as part of the innovation program of the Zurich Universities Digitalization Initiative (DIZH), acquired in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Janna Hastings. https://www.dizh.uzh.ch/en/2024/06/18/unrealbody-2/
“Exploring Epistemic Risks and Benefits of Incorporating Videos of Functional Seizures into Diagnostic Communication,” an empirical study conducted with Dr. Eva Breuer at the Clinic Evangelisches Krankenhaus Königin Elisabeth Herzberge (KEH) in Berlin
Studied Visual Communication at Shanghai Jiaotong University (China), DFI College of Interactive Media and Communication Art (Germany), and M.A. in Design for Digital Media at University of Portsmouth (UK).
Professional experience as designer and creative director in Shanghai, London, and Hamburg.
Won International Young Design Entrepreneur Award by British Council.
Coordinator and organiser for art and design related international study programmes and institutes in higher education, with over 15 years of experience in various universities across China and Germany.
Served as Vice Dean of School of Design, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai.
Currently Vice Dean of Sino-German Institute of Design and Communiation, Zhejiang Wanli University.
Editor-in-Chief of Interchange, the journal of transcultural design education.
Teaching and researching focus: Visual Culture, Digital Branding, Design Methodology in Digital Media, Intercultural Teaching and Learning.
Studied industrial engineering at the University of Rostock (Germany) and at the University of The Hague (Netherlands)
PhD on the topic of customer-customer interactions in social media (awarded the Best Thesis Award Germany at the International Marketing Trends Conference 2019)
2020 - 2024 Professor of Consumer Behavior at Southern Denmark University (Esbjerg, Denmark) and visiting researcher at Maastricht University (2017) and Aarhus University (2018)
Research focus: Customer relationship management and complaint handling in the virtual environment as well as service interactions with robots and AI agents
Publications in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Consumer Marketing, etc.
Project collaborations with well-known partners from the logistics, automotive, tourism and sports club sectors
Amazon, Team Lead Marketplace Consulting (since 2020)
Visable, Senior Business Development Manager (2018-2020)
Horváth & Partners, Management Consultant (Strategy, Innovation, Sales) (2017/2018)
Research Associate and Managing Director at the Institute of B2B Marketing & Management at Münster University (doctorate) (2012-2016)
Studies of Business Administration (Focus on Marketing, Finance & Accounting) at Münster University, University Paris-Dauphine and University Autónoma de Madrid
Teaching & Research Focus: Strategy, Marketing & Sales, Digital Business & Management
Publications i.a.: Comparing the incomparable, Digital media in B2B-procurement processes, Relevance of Digital media in B-to-B transactions, Brand relevance in markets of industrial goods, 4 O’s of risk identification in megaprojects, What risks and cocktails have in common