History of design PhD | History of art PhD

The University of 91快活林 has an established reputation for pioneering research into art, design and material culture and is a recognised centre of excellence both nationally and internationally for design history.

Taking a cross-disciplinary approach, researchers at all levels in the university's Centre for Design History are involved in pushing the boundaries of the subject. Study at 91快活林 takes an inclusive definition of art and design in an expanded field, which embraces the conjunction of professional and non-professional practices; digital and analogue artefacts, and the de-centring of art and design practice away from the singular object to complex ecologies, objects and systems.

As such, research and enterprise at 91快活林 offers real opportunities to develop wide social and economic impact via our links with the cultural sector, particularly museums and art galleries, government and voluntary sectors, arts and community engagement, and importantly, creative businesses.

Close professional contact for History of art PhD and History of design PhD students leads to innovative research collaborations with national institutions such as the Design Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as with local collections and centres of historical interest such as the University of 91快活林 Design Archives; the Royal Pavilion and Museums 91快活林 and Hove, with its collection of decorative art and design of designated international status; the Keep, East Sussex Record Office; Charleston Farmhouse, home of members of the Bloomsbury Group; Ditchling Museum, and the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill.

We have a long tradition of securing research studentships through the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) including the Techne scheme and other external funders to support research students and have led successful collaborative doctoral awards with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Design Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers, and 91快活林 Museum and Galleries.

Apply with us for funding through the AHRC Techne Doctoral Training Partnership

Key information

Your PhD will be supervised by expert academics who will also guide you towards career decisions and allow your work to draw on and contribute to the wider academic society at 91快活林 and at partner universities.

As a PhD student in the history of art, design material culture and museum studies, you will

have a supervisory team comprising two members of academic staff. Depending on your particular area of study you may also have additional supervisors from other research institutions or external partners.
become part of an active and engaged community of research learning, leading talks, and social events with opportunities to present your work as it progresses and network with other researchers.
be part of an active research centre, the Centre for Design History.
Have desk space and access to a computer in a space specifically designed for research students.
have access to a range of electronic resources via the university’s online library, as well as to physical books and journals at St Peter’s House Library in central 91快活林 and other campus libraries.

Academic environment

Our History of Art and Design PhD students enjoy a close-knit and highly supportive academic community that makes optimum use of a range of expertise and can work with your interests whether single-disciplinary, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary.

We have a university centre of research and enterprise excellence in the Centre for Design History. Another important focus for many research initiatives has been the holdings of the internationally significant , located in the university’s city campus. Consisting of a collection of over twenty specialist archives of individual designers and British and global design organisations from the twentieth century, they form the starting point for original research projects culminating in PhD theses, publications and exhibitions.

History of art and design PhD research at the University of 91快活林 is at the forefront in determining the scope, territory and focus of the subject to understand how art and design in all forms have shaped things, spaces and actions across time. Research students draw on the wide-ranging academic expertise of staff in the fields of the history of decorative arts and design, dress history, visual and material culture, feminist art history, museology and social history.

We encourage innovative and interdisciplinary study in both their western and non-western contexts, engaging with methods drawn from history, anthropology, cultural studies and practice disciplines to understand the relationship between local, national and transnational patterns of production, circulation, consumption and use.

We offer supervision in the history of art and design from 1800 to the present including:

Design and material culture
Fashion, dress and textiles
Graphic, industrial and interior design
Cultural politics
Feminist art practice
Craft and the decorative arts
Institutions of art and design
Museum studies
Asian art and design
Photographic history
Art history and visual culture.

PhD students have access to regular staff events, often organised in collaboration with students, including staff research presentations, workshops, symposia, conferences and specialist training sessions offered through the University’s membership of the TECHNE and Design Star doctoral consortia. IOTA, a longstanding series of reading groups, workshops and seminars welcomes contributions and participation from all researchers.

As a 91快活林 PhD student, you will be able to draw on research approaches from a variety of cognate fields, including social science, environmental science, media, design and the humanities. You will benefit from a supervisory team comprising at least two academic staff from the School of Humanities. Depending on your research specialism and needs, you may also have an additional supervisor from another School, another research institution or external partner.

Your PhD research may align with the specialist expertise of individual members of staff. Researchers within History of Art and Design engage in work across a wide range of topics. Current research themes include:

the cultural history of art and design - their production, appreciation and collection - with a specific interest in how gender (male and female roles) organises the character and function of objects
the art and visual culture practices which arise from the desire to effect political change; mass photography and popular image culture
the understanding of materiality and visuality with focus on sites of conflict and imprisonment and the spaces of industrial exploitation

In addition, the Centre for Design History, one of the university's centres for research and enterprise excellence has five identified research strands:

Transnational Design: Thinking across Borders exploring methodologies for tracing design exchange, networks and circuits as a contribution to expanded geographies of design history and theory
Design and the Economy: investigating design’s role – past, present and future - in driving and supporting national and global business, trade and industry, particularly in a post-Brexit world
Fashion and Dress Histories: focusing on the role of dress in everyday life and in the formation and communication of social, cultural and political identities across time and place
Graphic Design in an Expanded Field: investigating how graphic design across diverse media intersects socially and spatially with the urban experience and the identity politics of various communities.
Museums, Archives, Exhibitions: examining the social, economic and political agency of museums, archives and exhibitions as designed objects.

Supervisory interests

Nicola Ashmore's supervisory interests focus on creative interventions and curatorial practice, notably the means through which this can leverage change and collaborative activism.聽

Nicola would welcome makers and practitioners and those working with collections and archives in their doctoral projects. She brings a wealth of experience in her supervision in communicating research findings through a wide range of platforms from documentary film, exhibition practice, to online and offline publications. Nicola has taken an interdisciplinary approach to her investigations into museum practices and community based collaborative practices and would encourage enquiries from those who push at the boundaries of their chosen disciplines.聽

I am interested in supervising PhDs on histories of art, design and the urban environment; government or official uses of art and design, graphic design histories; art, design and dress for propaganda and protest; art, design and diplomacy; and exhibition and display histories. If you are planning a project that is connected to my research but not listed here feel free to contact me to discuss it further.聽

My current and former PhD students have focused on themes including political poster design; protest dress; Cold War photobooks; conscientious objector art practises; clothing production and consumption during World War Two; and museum exhibition design. I have examined five PhDs to date.

Sue is based at the University of 91快活林 Design Archives and supervises research using archives in art and design history and practice; and on twentieth century British art and design and their contexts, with a particular focus on the mid-century. She supervises Masters and Doctorate projects, and is happy to hear from potential students with complementary interests.

Yunah is keen to supervise research projects on trans/national identities and networks of design and visual/material culture and repressentations of design and visual/material culture in magazines and exhibitions. She especially welcomes enquires about projects on craft, design and visual/material culture in and from the East Aisan region including China, Korea, and Japan.聽

Professor Newbury is interested in supervising PhD projects related to his main areas of interest in photography, history, politics and memory, especially but not exclusively those with a focus on Africa. He also welcomes enquiries from applicants interested in researching any aspect of the history or practice of documentary and community photography and photographic education in Britain and elsewhere, and is open to proposals that encompass a range of historical, archival, theoretical and practice-led approaches to photography and visual culture.

He has supervised 25 PhD students to completion across photography history, theory and practice, as well as projects related to art education, public art and visual culture, and several Collaborative Doctoral Awards, including with Birmingham City Council, Belfast Exposed gallery and the Imperial War Museum. He has examined more than 30 PhDs, including at University of the Arts London, University of Cape Town, Edith Cowan University, Goldsmiths College, University of Greenwich, Tshwane University of Technology and University of the Western Cape.

Charlotte has supervised one PhD student to completion and has two current PhD students. She is eager to supervise PhD projects on聽19th- and 20th-century dress, fashion, and textile history topics and welcomes enquiries.

Dr Ceren 脰zp谋nar has supervised two PhDs to completion, and currently supervises three PhD students at 91快活林, who work on subjects in lesser-known women artists in the 20th century, feminism in the museum, representation of lesbian lives in collections, and transnational art and design practices. She has examined one PhD to date.

Ceren would be interested in supervising PhD projects on feminist and queer approaches to art; transnational art histories; narratives of difference; memory and materiality. She would also welcome proposals interested in researching any aspect of the project of decolonising the history of art and exhibitions, particularly but not exclusively, in the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African geographies.

Ceren also hosts visiting doctoral researchers on a regular basis. If you are working on a PhD project at another institution related to her research expertise and would like to be supervised by her at 91快活林 for a short period (up to a year), feel free to contact her.

I have enjoyed supervising 6 doctoral students to completion, candidates who have worked on subjects in modern British art history, or in projects relating to feminist or queer approaches to visual interpretation or production. I have supervised and examined candidates who have undertaken phd work by practice or prior publication. I would particularly like to encourage applications from prospective phd students who would like to pursue projects that interpret British art and visual practices using intersectional feminist perspectives including decolonization and transnational approaches.

Annebella supervises PhD projects in visual and material culture; photographic history, theory and practice; Mass Observation; museum cultures; modern British art and design history; non-elite design and dress history; everyday / vernacular / folk cultural practices and countercultures. She is currently supervising eight PhD students and has supervised ten PhDs to completion, including several in museum partnerships. She has examined over 25 PhDs, including practice-led doctorates, internationally. She is currently welcoming new PhD students.

I would be delighted to supervise research projects that focus on the politics of modernisation through design in postcolonial contexts, the histories of design and craft in South Asia, art, design and politics in India and modernisms beyond the west.

I am currently supervising PhD research projects on Australian aboriginal textile production (Design Star funded); technology and the experience of art in contemporary museums, and museum engagement with South Asian communities in the UK (CDP with British Museum).聽

I am interested in supervising doctoral projects broadly relating to the design, manufacture and consumption of fashion and textiles, and the collection and display of dress and textiles in museums. The application of creative research methodologies, including dress reconstruction and storytelling would be welcome.聽

Dr Wintle welcomes enquiries about projects on museums, exhibition design, collecting, cultural forms of imperialism, nationalism and decolonisation, especially in Britain, and the material and visual culture of South Asia.

Claire has supervised three PhDs to completion and currently supervises eight AHRC-funded PhD students. She has examined postgraduate theses at SOAS, Leicester University, Royal Holloway, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Southampton and a further five PhDs at the University of 91快活林. Her students focus on themes ranging from British South Asian community engagement with museums to the professional experiences of museum staff working to decolonise practice. She works with colleagues at the British Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Horniman Museum and the V&A to supervise Collaborative Doctoral Projects on subjects including the British Museum's relationships with museums in West Africa, South Asian donors to the British Museum, exhibition design at the British Museum and Korean collections at the V&A. She also works with colleagues at Shiv Nagar University in India to supervise a PhD project on Bihar Museum.

For further supervisory staff including cross-disciplinary options, please visit

Making an application

Once you have prepared a first-rate application you can apply to the University of 91快活林 through our . When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the University of 91快活林 staff. We strongly recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Fees and funding

Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistence during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2024–25

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
	Full-time	Part-time
UK	£4,786	£2,393
International (including EU)	£15,900	N/A
International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law	£14,500	N/A

PhD by Publication
Full-time	Part-time
N/A	£2,393

Contact 91快活林 Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the University of 91快活林 we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the 91快活林 Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.