History of Design and Material Culture MA

Top reasons to choose this course

• Staff include academics who develop leading research as part of the Centre for Design History on the museums and heritage sector.
• We have a history of graduate success in the fields of museums, galleries, heritage, academia and publishing.
• You will have access to internationally important collections including the Royal Pavilion and Museum’s collections of decorative art, world art and natural history and University of Brighton-held collections relating to design and screen history and historic dress.

• There are off-site study visits, live briefs and hands-on sessions.
• Join a vibrant community, featuring visiting researchers and practitioners, reading groups, lectures and workshops.
• You will hear from guest speakers from prestigious and important institutions.

Follow the History of Design and Material Culture MA course on Instagram.

Course structure

Your MA will be structured around two core modules: Exploring Objects and Mediating Objects (20 credits each). 

Over two semesters, these modules will enable you to understand and use current theoretical frameworks in the interpretation of material worlds and their myriad representations. Collectively, seminar working, close reading and wide-ranging discussions are the key learning and teaching strategy of these two modules, with the aim of supporting and developing your skills of expression and articulation.

Alongside the core modules, you will also take a Research Methods module (20 credits) and embark upon your own research towards an 18,000 to 20,000-word dissertation. The dissertation is the centrepiece of your MA studies. You will be supported through tutorials to investigate a subject or perspective of your own within the History of Design and Material Culture, undertaking primary research and making new critical interventions in this interdisciplinary field.

Previous dissertation subjects include:

• Workwear as Fashion and Anti-Fashion
• Representations of the Holocaust: the Rejected Works of Arnold Daghani
• Photography and Jewellery: Older Women and the Practices of Keeping Things
• The Fetishization of Women’s Hair in Victorian Material Culture
• Japanese Gardens in England
• Political Posters and the Children of Mao’s China.

Graffiti, Thessaloniki. Photo: Zeina Maasri, 2011.

Syllabus

Modules

Core modules

• Exploring Objects

  This module will introduce you to a series of theories and approaches in design history and material culture such as historical materialism, feminist critiques, ideas of affect, concepts of the Anthropocene and decolonising practices. Drawing on the period from the late 18th century to the present time, you will examine and make sense of designed objects in terms of how they are produced, circulated, consumed and used in everyday life.

• Mediating Objects

  This module looks at how everyday objects and people influence each other’s identities and are connected in important ways. You will analyse how they are represented in various texts and contexts such as photographs, works of fiction, correspondence and blogs, film and advertising. You’ll also examine how things are transformed through everyday actions and traditions, like giving gifts or remembering personal and shared experiences.

• Dissertation

  This dissertation is a piece of original writing of 12,000 words on a research topic of your choice and is the culmination of your MA course. Conducted with the guidance of a subject-relevant tutor, you will develop and emphasise your own intellectual and research interests in a given area of the history of design and material culture. The dissertation will be largely based on primary research, usually drawing on specialist archives and surviving historical material.

• Independent Study: Extended Essay

  This module enables you to pursue a focused study of a topic of specific interest to you with supervisory guidance from a tutor. You will produce an essay that demonstrates your skills of original research and critical evaluation in the context of history of design and material culture approaches. The topic should be different from that of your dissertation.

Options*

• Critical Perspectives on Exhibitions

  This module engages you with debates on museum organisation, management and heritage from the late-18th century to the present. You will develop critical, observational and analytical skills by exploring taxonomic classification, exhibition practices, community engagement, digital curating and identity. The assessment involves you exploring the design, curation and content of an existing exhibition within a museum, heritage site, other public space or as a digital entity.

• Issues in Graphic Design: Modernity, Identity and Meaning

  During this module you will look at the changing character of graphic design and visual communication from the late 19th century until today. This will involve exploring ways in which graphic objects, signs and systems have contributed to individual, business and national identities; how graphic design has been taught and developed as a profession and how it has contributed to everyday life; and how writers and theorists have analysed societies based on multiple, reproduced images.

• History of Fashion and Dress: New Directions

  This module will introduce you to a series of current issues and approaches in fashion and dress history. It addresses methodological, theoretical and historiographical challenges, such as the field’s traditional focus on the clothing of elite, urban, heterosexual, Euro-American white women. The module includes case studies ranging from 18th century to the present which consider the different ways this material is researched and interpreted.

• Critical Perspectives on Exhibitions

  This module engages you with debates on museum organisation, management and heritage from the late-18th century to the present. You will develop critical, observational and analytical skills by exploring taxonomic classification, exhibition practices, community engagement, digital curating and identity. The assessment involves you exploring the design, curation and content of an existing exhibition within a museum, heritage site, other public space or as a digital entity.

• Issues in Graphic Design: Modernity, Identity and Meaning

  During this module you will look at the changing character of graphic design and visual communication from the late 19th century until today. This will involve exploring ways in which graphic objects, signs and systems have contributed to individual, business and national identities; how graphic design has been taught and developed as a profession and how it has contributed to everyday life; and how writers and theorists have analysed societies based on multiple, reproduced images.

• History of Fashion and Dress: New Directions

  This module will introduce you to a series of current issues and approaches in fashion and dress history. It addresses methodological, theoretical and historiographical challenges, such as the field’s traditional focus on the clothing of elite, urban, heterosexual, Euro-American white women. The module includes case studies ranging from 18th century to the present which consider the different ways this material is researched and interpreted.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Street graphics, Lebanon. Photo: Zeina Maasri.

Lab facilities

Mithras House is home to all our School of Humanities and Social Science courses. It has a series of ‘labs’, which may be used for teaching on your course or in your independent research work.

Design lab
A space housing our extensive collection of historic dress and textiles, which are used in some teaching on our History of Art and Design courses. It has the space and equipment to work on textile projects. Displays created by students on these programmes are on view in the social spaces of the building.

Life lab
A comfortable space with lounge furniture intended for qualitative research with larger groups. Due to its relaxed layout and naturalistic environment, the space is suited to research using focus groups, research using observation-based methods and child research.

City lab
A space designed for collaborative student learning. It is used by students and staff involved in the university’s Global Challenges programme, our collective mission to contribute towards solutions to tackling the pressing issues facing our world.

Stats lab
A specialist workspace with computing equipment for statistical analysis and projects involving video and audio editing software. Accessible as a study space to students on psychology courses as well as students studying courses involving video and audio recording and editing, the lab contains eight soundproof booths.

VR and eye-tracking lab
This lab is used for psychological research, eye-tracking and virtual reality research.

You will also benefit from: 

• world-class Design Archives

• St Peters House Special Collection which contains rare, valuable and delicate books, illustrated books, artist books and handmade items

• Screen Archive South East – a moving image archive.

In addition, the university has close relationships with local festivals and organisations such as Cinecity, the Brighton Photo Biennial, the Brighton Festival, Brighton Festival Fringe, Brighton Digital Festival, Fabrica and Lighthouse. These connections provide a range of opportunities for students. 

Resources

This course makes use of the University of Brighton Design Archives, which include the archives of the Design Council, Alison Settle, FHK Henrion and the South of England Film and Video Archive.

Close professional contact with national institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as with local collections and centres of historical interest (such as Brighton’s unique Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, with its internationally famous collection of decorative art from the 1890s onwards), present research opportunities for students registered on the course.

The course is closely linked to our arts and humanities research division through a joint research lecture series, and we have successfully encouraged high achievers to register for the MPhil/PhD programme.

The student environment also includes the thriving postgraduate Design History Society as well as opportunities for conference presentation, professional contact and career development in the field.

The award-winning University of Brighton Design Archives.

Meet the team

Dr Charlotte Nicklas, course leader

Charlotte’s main research interest is the history of dress, fashion and textiles in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but she is interested in all aspects of the history of dress and textiles and, more broadly, material culture and the history of design. She approaches these histories through objects, images and texts. At the centre of her research is the way in which dress and fashion both influence and reflect the cultural concerns of a particular historical period. Particular interests include the history of colour in clothing and fashion and fictional representations of dress and fashion. Read Charlotte’s full profile.

Other staff who teach on the course include:

Dr Megha Rajguru, Dr Ceren Ozpinar, Dr Verity Clarkson, Dr Eliza Tan and Kevin Bacon, digital manager at Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust, Brighton & Hove.

Read a Q+A with Dr Eliza Tan about her career journey.

Student views

Karen Fraser, History of Design and Material Culture graduate

“I was impressed with the range of opportunities for research and learning that included access to a variety of sources for primary research, such as objects in the Dress History Teaching Collection and photographs and written documents in the University of Brighton Design Archives.

“I enjoyed learning from the course tutors, who are active and inspiring leaders in their areas of academic interest. They facilitated an exceptional range of extracurricular lectures, conference sessions and reading groups that greatly enhanced my experience on the course. While much of the work was completed individually, the seminars enabled me to share ideas with fellow students and gain different perspectives from engaged and supportive individuals who were at different stages in their careers.”

Course fees

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

The Ruby Lee Progression Scholarship will be awarded to an international student with ambition and ability, allowing them to have a transformational experience at the University of Brighton. Find out how to apply...

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international postgraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Local area

Maps

Support and wellbeing

Sport at Brighton