Dr Josephine (Josie) Kane

Josie’s research is broadly concerned with the relationship between design and the lived experience of cities from the nineteenth century to the present day.

Her early research focused on the history of thrill-seeking and the design of amusement parks in Europe and North America. This culminated in a monograph The Architecture of Pleasure (2013), which showed how sites such as Blackpool Pleasure Beach redefined commodified pleasure in Britain and provided a key space for women to participate in cultures of technological modernity in the early twentieth century.

Other publications explore the connections between pleasure, modernity and the architectural environment – from the commercial gardens, travelling fairs and seaside resorts of the 1800s to Edwardian leisure complexes and modernist cinemas in the twentieth century.

This interest led to research on contemporary urban novelties and a collaborative Wellcome Trust project Vertigo in the City, which examined the medical, emotional and intellectual impact of high-rise cities (Kane & Deriu eds. Special Issue: Emotion Space & Society, 2018).

More recently, Josie has turned her attention to nature in the city. She is currently developing a project about the ‘Waterinness’ of London, a design history of the Thames which encompasses sailing barges, bridges, tunnels, docks and other riverine structures, and frames the River as a non-human agent of urban design change.

Three core values underpin Josie’s practice as a teacher and researcher. First, a commitment to design history as a socially-engaged and public-facing practice. Second, seeking out object-led methodological strategies which disrupt dominant narratives about the built environment and reveal hidden or transient lived experiences in the past. And finally, advocating for interdisciplinary and dialogic modes of working.

Josie is a founding member and co-chair of Sites & Situations Research Cluster, which brings together artists, curators, historians and architects to explore the role of art and design in the public realm. She is currently collaborating with Ben Judd (Sculpture and CAP) on an interdisciplinary project about boats as sites of transformation - social, creative, political, material.

She is a regular peer reviewer for Architecture and Culture Journal, the Journal of Design History and Bloomsbury and, in 2018, for the HERA Joint Research Programme ‘Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe’ (Horizon 2020).

Outside of HEI, Josie worked as a Live Interpreter for Historic Royal Palaces and at heritage sites across the UK. In 2019, she completed the Engage Research Academy programme run by the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement programme.

Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with Royal Museums Greenwich, REACH Consortium, AHRC CDP4 (2025–29)

Postdoctoral Fellowship, British Academy (2009–15)

PhD Studentship, Arts & Humanities Research Council (2004–07)

Kane, J. (2020). Pleasure Garden on Sea. Pleasure Garden, 7, pp. 22–25.

Kane, J. & Deriu, D. (2018). Towards a Vertigology of Contemporary Cities. Emotion, Space and Society, 28, 79–83

Kane, J & Beyts, J. (2018). Sick in the City: A Clinicians’ Perspective. Emotion, Space and Society, 28, 84–88.

Kane, J. (2017). Mechanical Pleasures. In: J. Woods, ed., The Amusement Park: History, Culture and Heritage. Routledge, pp. 31–57.

Kane, J. (2015) Dream City: London’s Pleasurescapes. LA+ : Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2, pp. 38–45.

Kane, J. (2013) The Architecture of Pleasure: British Amusement Parks 1900–1939. Farnham: Ashgate.

Kane, J. (2012) The Pleasure Garden Reborn? The Edwardian Amusement Park. In: J. Conlin, The Pleasure Garden from Vauxhall to Coney Island. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 217–245.

Kane, J. (2009). The Construction of a Modern Pleasure Palace: Dreamland Cinema, Margate, 1935. In: C. Frayling, E. King and H. Atkinson eds, Design and Popular Entertainment. Manchester: MUP, pp. 57–78.