You’re invited to join the first informal conversation in this year’s Gordon Library Author Series, featuring Professor Steve Taylor, author and curator of Research Handbook on Organizational Aesthetics (October 2026, Elgar). In Taylor’s words, “organizational aesthetics takes seriously the idea that management is as much an art as it is a science, and applies art-based scholarship and practice to management and organizations.” Prof. Taylor will be joined in conversation by Elizabeth Long Lingo, Professor of Organization Studies and Creative Leadership.
An expert in organizational aesthetics and founding editor of the journal Organizational Aesthetics, Prof. Taylor will read from his provocative essay, “Death of a Professor: The Unbearable Heaviness of Being a {Leader} Middle Manager.”
This Research Handbook provides a sourcebook of methodologically innovative and philosophically rigorous ways to research aesthetics in and of organizations. It includes chapters that sketch the history of the field, and provide perspectives on its current landscape, including the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, raising questions about the future of human knowledge and experience in organizations.
This is the first event in Gordon Library’s 26-27 series of conversations with readers and writers at WPI. All are welcome at this informal gathering.
WHERE: Gordon Conference Room (303)
WHEN: 3-4:30pm, Wednesday November 11
LIGHT REFRESHMENTS will be served.