The History of Design programme encourages applications for research degrees. We offer MPhil and PhD by thesis. Potential applicants should email the programme administrator, to arrange to discuss their possible subject area with an appropriate course tutor. Please email hod@rca.ac.uk.
We welcome research applications that pursue the meanings
of designed objects, spaces and images within the context of
manufacture, mediation and consumption in any national or international
context and historical period after 1400. Together with our partner
institution, the V&A, we can offer expertise in a wide range of
material and media specialisation, including dress and textiles,
graphics, print and digital cultures, architecture, interior and product
design, craft and applied arts. We welcome cross-disciplinary
approaches to the subject from related research fields such as history
and history of art, sociology and anthropology. Research student programme seminars, reading groups and workshops are offered to all students enrolled in the School of Humanities.
Areas of recent and current research interest include:
- craftsmanship and artisanal cultures
- design, trade and exchange
- design exhibitions; curatorial practice, history and theory
- design and national/global identities
- the design and material culture of the domestic interior
- material history and the history of materiality
- Asian design history
Rebecca Bell, PhD by thesis
Mary Ann Bolger, PhD by thesis
Emily Candela, MPhil by thesis (AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award with the Science Museum)
Mary Ginsberg, MPhil by thesis
Catherine Guiral de Trenqualye, MPhil by thesis
Jessica Jenkins, PhD by thesis, AHRC Doctoral Award
Katarzyna Jezowska, MPhil by thesis
Michelle Jones, PhD by thesis, AHRC Doctoral Award
Hui-Ying Kerr, MPhil by thesis, AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award with the V&A Museum
Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin, PhD by thesis, AHRC Doctoral Award
David Preston, MPhil by thesis
Shehnaz Suterwalla, PhD by thesis
Alice Twemlow, PhD by thesis
Helen Walter, PhD by thesis
Trinita Marr, MPhil by thesis