Fashion and Psychoanalysis Symposium Speaker Bios
Dr. Christine Anzieu-Premmereur is a psychoanalyst in New York, member of the Société Psychanalytique de Paris, and the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Center, and co-founder of Pulsion: The International Institute of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychosomatics, New York. Her books include A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the Body in Today's World (2017) and A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the Contemporary Search for Pleasure (2023).
Laverne Cox is a four-time Emmy-nominated actress, Emmy winning producer and a prominent equal rights advocate and public speaker. She is the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for a Primetime acting Emmy and the first Trans woman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television series. Laverne is known as the red-carpet host of "Live from E!" and has starred in shows like "Orange is The New Black," "Inventing Anna," and "A Clean Slate."
Bella Freud moves across fashion, interiors, perfumery, filmmaking, and publishing, founding her eponymous fashion label in 1990. She has collaborated with leading names in these fields, including John Malkovich, Anita Pallenberg, and Nick Cave. In October 2024, she launched the podcast Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud, which reached number one on the U.K. arts podcast charts and the top 10 globally. Its deeply personal conversations examine how style is one of the most immediate and universal languages with which we communicate ourselves to the world.
Dr. Patricia Gherovici is a psychoanalyst, scholar, and 2020 Sigourney Award recipient for her work with Latinx and gender-variant communities. Co-founder of the Philadelphia Lacan Study Group and Pulsion: The International Institute of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychosomatics, New York; and a faculty member in the Philosophy Department at the New School for Social Research. She is the author of books on gender, sexuality, and psychoanalysis, such as Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Sexualities: From Feminism to Trans* (2023) and Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, Class, and the Unconscious (2019), winning multiple prestigious awards.
Chanda D. Griffin, LCSW, is a teaching, training, and supervising analyst at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis. A member of Black Psychoanalysts Speak, she is co-author of "The Secret Society: Perspectives from a Multiracial Cohort," published in the journal Contemporary Psychoanalysis in 2020, as well as the author of essays, such as "Red Pill Psychoanalysis and the Matrix of Racial Roles" and "The Psychoanalytic Activist." A faculty member at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Griffin is in private practice in New York City.
Anouchka Grose is a London-based psychoanalyst, writer, lecturer, and climate campaigner. Her published books include From Anxiety to Zoolander: Notes on Psychoanalysis (2018), Uneasy Listening: Notes on Hearing and Being Heard (2022), and Fashion: A Manifesto (2023). She also writes about art and has contributed to The Guardian, Granta, Harper's Bazaar, and Radio 4.
Dr. Simona Segre-Reinach is associate professor at the University of Bologna. Her work explores global fashion, visual culture, and the intersection of fashion and identity. Her books include Fashion in Multiple Chinas: Chinese Styles in the Transglobal Landscape (2020), Biki: French Visions for Italian Fashion (2019), and Animal (forthcoming). She curates the Biki Fashion Archive in Milan.
Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT, is curator of the exhibition Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis and author of its accompanying book (London: Bloomsbury, 2025). Steele has curated more than two dozen exhibitions since 1997, and is author or editor of 25 books. She is also founding editor of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture.