Paul Savaiano

Dean's Graduate Scholar - Arts

Pronouns: he/him/his

Paul is an artist and scholar exploring the possibilities and limitations of imagination. After a childhood in Chicago, he studied psychology, philosophy, and advertising at Syracuse University, and then worked for 14 years as a brand strategist and creative consultant— following the sun to Los Angeles and then following his gut to come back east to New York City. To better position brands’ outsized impact in a global-yet-unequal society and a quickly-evolving visual landscape, he started his graduate work at Harvard University, where he studied visual arts and the complicated truth that the visuals we see every day both fuel and hinder our individual and collective imaginations. He decided to continue his exploration at Gallatin. As a Dean’s Scholar, he is investigating the intersection of visual rhetoric, creativity, and imagination —and critical questions around identity, power, and change in the world that are hiding at the intersection. Ultimately he is hoping to gain more insight into how visual language can unlock imagination in a way that equips people of all ages with the possibility to create a different future.