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Centre for Design History
  • What we do
  • Join us for study, work or visit
  • Who we are

Welcome to the Centre for Design History

The Centre for Design History applies a cross-disciplinary research perspective to understand how design in all its forms has shaped things, spaces and actions across time.

Our approach extends to research across other arts and humanities, the social sciences, engineering, health, and community engagement. A wide social and economic impact develops through our links with the cultural sector, particularly museums and art galleries, government and voluntary sectors and, crucially, creative businesses. Our research in design history makes an important contribution to cultural life and wellbeing.

  • For latest activities, events and opportunities - visit our Design History research blog site.
  • We welcome new members and associates. Please visit our 'Join us for study, work or visit' pages to find out more.

 

 

PhD applicants - find out more about studying within the centre

Contact the centre regarding membership enquiries, doctoral study, research collaboration or to receive regular updates on our news and events.

CentreforDesignHistory@brighton.ac.uk


 

Rows of differently shaped and coloured boxes on large shelves, handwritten labels give dates and clothing types. Title reads Costume stores, Worhting Museum and Art Gallery.

What we do

Black and white image of a parade of young men and boys carrying carved totems and wearing rustic tunics. Title reads, Kibbo Kift Kindred, Witsun gathering 1925. Courtesy of Kibbo Kift Foundation.

Join us for study, work or visit

Collected black and white and sepia photographs including head and shoulder portraits and formal groups in distinctive clothing from earlier eras. Title reads, Dress history collection, University of Brighton.

Who we are

Discover our latest research activity
Visit our blog site for work-in-progress, events and opportunities.

Discover our research in detail
Explore our centre on the university's database of research and knowledge exchange.

Claire Wintle and Megha Rajguru 

An introduction to the Centre for Design History from the directors, Dr Claire Wintle and Dr Megha Rajguru.

Welcome to the Centre for Design History! We bring together more than 50 University of Brighton specialist design historians who are conducting research and enterprise in partnership with local, national and international arts, culture and heritage institutions. The centre applies a cross-disciplinary perspective to understand how design in all its forms has shaped things, spaces and actions across time.

The research Centre for Design History examines the production and consumption of visual and material culture – images and things – in their widest social and cultural contexts across diverse histories and geographies.

We are committed to taking global perspectives on how colonial and post-colonial narratives of design have been constructed and to consider what voices and practices these exclude. We contribute to an ‘expanded field’ of design history that embraces the conjunction of professional and non-professional practices; digital and analogue artefacts; the de-centring of design practice away from the singular object to complex ecologies, objects and systems, the role of design and material culture in everyday life, and the embedding of design thinking into management and organisational processes.

The University of Brighton contributed significantly to the initial development of design history as a formal discipline in the late 1970s. Since then, it has been a leading institution for research and teaching in the subject, which is provided at all levels of the curriculum and by internationally recognised experts. The university has long been an international leader in postgraduate research in design history, with a thriving MA and PhD community, and it is the home of the internationally renowned University of Brighton Design Archives. The University of Brighton has created the platform upon which many leading professionals have built their careers in academia, archival practices, museums and other cultural and heritage organisations.

We continue to push the boundaries of research in the design history subject area, opening up new areas for research. Our current research focus is on decolonial approaches in our specialist strands: Graphic Design History; Fashion and Dress History; Museums, Archives and Collections; Transnational Design Histories. We develop our thinking and practices in dialogue with international colleagues and institutions through the establishment and development of new projects, publications and creative forms of engagement including curated exhibitions. Our members include scholars, archivists, curators, designers and museum and heritage professionals.

We welcome new collaborators at all career stages. We provide supervisory support for PhD design history candidates and host international visiting researchers. Contact us at CentreforDesignHistory@brighton.ac.uk for research consultancy and partnership across all our broad areas of design history expertise.

 

Dr Claire Wintle and Dr Megha Rajguru

 

News from the Centre for Design History

CDH on the University of Brighton news pages

Funded PhD opportunities in the UK 2023 at the University of Brighton

Funded PhD opportunities in the UK 2023 at the University of Brighton

Funded PhDs across sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences. Study for your postgraduate research degree.

'You're Dead to Me': Three of our PhD students take Radio 4 research placements

'You're Dead to Me': Three of our PhD students take Radio 4 research placements

History-focused PhD students at the University of Brighton took three highly competitive placements for research roles on the popular Radio 4 show.

Photo album returns out of the blue to light up a family history

Photo album returns out of the blue to light up a family history

The story of a richly evocative long-lost photo album that made its way back to the family of a Brighton academic has been featured on the BBC.

New book reveals all about Britain's historic nudist movement

New book reveals all about Britain's historic nudist movement

The eye-opening history of naturism in 20th century Britain is spotlit in a new book by University of Brighton's Dr Annebella Pollen, published on 3 December.

University of Brighton academic receives prestigious £100,000 prize

University of Brighton academic receives prestigious £100,000 prize

Dr Annebella Pollen has been awarded a £100,000 Philip Leverhulme Prize, which she will use to fund a new study into the history of photography by children.

Brighton academic sheds light on Historic England lockdown photo project

Brighton academic sheds light on Historic England lockdown photo project

University of Brighton's Bella Pollen has teamed up with Historic England to explore pictures taken by the public during the first 2020 lockdown.

Brighton archives celebrate Festival of Britain 70th anniversary

Brighton archives celebrate Festival of Britain 70th anniversary

Two archives at the University of Brighton are highlighting material from the iconic Festival of Britain, marking its 70th anniversary this summer.

Brighton meets Brazil for international design history collaboration

Brighton meets Brazil for international design history collaboration

The Centre for Design History is to collaborate with a leading Brazilian university on a project to develop academic design writing skills in the Global South.

Brighton lecturer brings pub history to life for BBC look to the future

Brighton lecturer brings pub history to life for BBC look to the future

Dr Damon Taylor has chronicled the place of pubs in the community for a new Radio 4 series looking at the future of Britain's town centres after the pandemic.

National status award for Design Archives

National status award for Design Archives

The University of Brighton Design Archives has been awarded national accreditation.

Displaying 1 to 10 of 10 Next Previous |

 

 

Our researchers write for

Logo for news service The Conversation

  • Rebel youth: How Britain's Woodcraft folk tried to change the world: Annebella Pollen
  • How the humble blouse got women out to work and revolutionised a city’s manufacturing: Suzanne Rowland.
  • Love’s ruin? Victorian Valentines rival our modern age for cynical cruelty: Annebella Pollen
  • Why Louis XIV would approve of fashion at the Oscars: Marie McLoughlin

 

 

News and events from our blog site

 

Talk Series | Where Design Fails? Exploring Design Archives – November/December 2022

Talk Series | Where Design Fails? Exploring Design Archives – November/December 2022

Where Design Fails?

Call | Visiting Research Fellows 2022/23

Call | Visiting Research Fellows 2022/23

The Centre for Design History (CDH) at the University of Brighton invites applications for Visiting Research Fellows (VRF) to spend time at the Centre in the autumn semester (September-January 2022-23) OR the spring semester (February-June 2023) of 2022/23 to pursue.

News | CDH member wins British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize

News | CDH member wins British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize

Congratulations to CDH member Zeina Maasri who has won the 2021 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize for her monograph, Cosmopolitan Radicalism: The Visual Politics of Beirut’s Global Sixties (Cambridge University Press, 2020) The award recognises originality, clarity and accessibility, and.

News | Podcast: Graphic Interventions, Ep.04 Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives

News | Podcast: Graphic Interventions, Ep.04 Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives

Mini Daily Mail made by Darren Cullen of Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives Graphic Interventions is a new podcast series investigating political statements made through posters, banners and zines, produced and hosted by Harriet Atkinson.

Read more from our research centre blog site

 

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