History of Design and Material Culture

The MA History of Design and Material Culture examines objects and images from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, exploring how things are created and how they circulate through global cultures.

There is a particular focus on everyday life as critical interpretation through a lens of current debates about materiality and visuality, affect and agency, gender and identity, memory and history, the post human and the Anthropocene, and the de-colonisation of design history.

Since its inception in the late 1990s, the MA has maintained a high international reputation and contributes to shaping the future of design history and material culture in the university and museum sectors.

Our staff team has research strengths in histories of fashion and dress, graphic design and photography, material culture theory and design cultures of political protest. Staff and students work closely with those on the Curating Collections and Heritage MA.