Leah Armstrong is a design historian. She is currently FWF Senior Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and is working on her first monograph, ‘The Industrialized Designer: Gender, Identity and Professionalization in Britain and the United States, 1930-1980’
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Current projects
FWF ELISE RICHTER SENIOR POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP
FWF V740: ‘Professionalisation and its Discontents: Design, 1930-1980’ examines the precarious position of design, a ‘new profession’ formed in the middle of the twentieth century, in the wider context of professionalisation, 1930-1980. Moving beyond institutional accounts of professionalisation, the project will conduct case study analysis to open up a distinctive new history of the designer as a ‘creative professional’, mediating, negotiating and re-inventing the limits, values and boundaries of professional identity in the second half of the twentieth century. Showing professionalisation to be in a constant state of ‘design’, the research will offer fresh insights from gender and transnational perspectives to reflect more broadly on the value of professional identity in a post-professional, post-industrial society.
Employment
FWF Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow, ‘Professionalisation and its Discontents: Design, 1930-1980’, Design History and Theory, University of Applied Arts Vienna, 2020-
Senior Lecturer, Design History and Theory , University of Applied Arts Vienna, 2015-(on research leave)
Archive Manager, Victor J. Papanek Foundation, University of Applied Arts Vienna, 2015- (on research leave)
Research Officer in Contemporary Design Culture, Victoria and Albert Museum and University of Brighton , 2015-2017
Research Assistant, ‘Studio as Pedagogy’, the Glasgow School of Art, 2016-7
Lecturer, Cultural Studies, BA: Humanities, University of Brighton, 2016-7
Publications
Co-editor with Kasia Jezowska, 'Special Issue: Administering Design: Politics, Power and Agency in Global Perspective’, Journal of Design History, forthcoming.
The Industrialized Designer: Gender, Identity and Professionalization in Britain and the United States, 1930-1980’ (Manchester University Press, 2024).
‘“Fashions of the Future”: Fashion, Gender and the Professionalization of Industrial Design’, Design Issues, Vol.37, No.3, (Summer, 2021), pp.5-1 7. Online access.
‘Review: Engineered to Sell, European Emigres and the Making of Consumer Capitalism’, Journal of Design History, (online first: 23 April 2021), Online access.
‘Working from Home: Fashioning the Designer in Britain’ in G. Julier et al (eds.) Design Culture: Object and Approaches (London: Bloomsbury, 2019).
Co-editor with Felice McDowell, Fashioning Professionals: Identity and Representation at Work in the Creative Industries, (Bloomsbury, 2018).
‘Review: Studio Studies’, West 86th, Vol.24, (Spring-Summer 2017), pp.122-127. Online Access
‘A New Image for a New Profession: Self-Image and Representation in the Professionalisation of Design in Britain, 1945-1960’, Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol.19, Issue 1, (2017), pp. 104-124. Online Access
‘Steering a Course between Commercialism and Professionalism: The Society of Industrial Artists and the Code of Conduct for the Professional Designer, 1945–1975’, Journal of Design History, Vol.29, No.2 (2016), pp.161-179.
Open Access
‘Commemorating Bonds of Union: Remembering the Ulster Special Constabulary in the National Memorial Arboretum’ in G. Dawson, J. Dover, S. Hopkins (eds.) The Northern Ireland Troubles in Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016).
‘Sites of Interaction: The Design Culture Salons at the V&A Museum’ in L. Farrelly and J. Weddell (eds.) Design Objects and the Museum (London: Bloomsbury, 2015).
Twenty-one entries on institutions and processes in H. Atkinson and C. Edwards (eds.) Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design (London: Bloomsbury, 2015).
Co-Author with J. Bailey, G. Julier and L. Kimbell, Social Design Futures, AHRC Scoping Report: Mapping Social Design Research and Practice, V&A, University of Brighton (July, 2014).
‘Portraits: Women Designers’, Fashion and Textiles Museum, (16 March–16 June 2012) and accompanying educational digital resource for the University of Brighton Design Archives
Events
Organiser, with Julia Secklehner, ‘Femininity and Design at Work’, online workshop, 15 and 22 March 2024.
Speaker, with Ali Ilhan, ‘Professional Polycrisis: Trust and Risk in Industrial Design’, Panel: ‘Polycrisis and Design: Ethics, Intervention, Possibility’, Chairs: Anna Talley and Craig Martin, CAA Annual Conference, Chicago, 15 February 2024.
Keynote speaker, ‘Working in crisis-mode: professionalism, power and precarity in design’, For the sake of creative freedom: graphic design in the cultural sector, Bern Academy of the Arts, HKB, Switzerland, 1 December 2023.
Speaker, ‘The ‘problem’ of the woman designer and the writing of design history’, ‘At the Roots of Expanded Design. What Futures for Design History? VI convegno AIS/Design, 2023’, Politecnico di Milano, 24-25 November, 2023.
Speaker, ‘The man in the middle: advertising the designer in the US’, Panel: ‘Publicising the Profession: Advertising and Design’, Design History Society Annual Conference, Porto, Portugal, 8 September, 2023.
Speaker, ‘Gaby Schreiber: Designing for air travel’, PopCRN & Aviation Cultures Conference, Online from Australia, 21-22 July, 2023, https://aviationcultures.org/
Chair, Panel 2, ‘Visions of Welfare’, Online Conference, (9 May, 2023), 15:45-17:00 (https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/events/conference-visions-of-welfare-2023/).
Co-chair with Kasia Jezowska, 'Administering Design: the Hidden Practices of Design Work’, Design History Society sponsored panel, virtual session, CAA Annual Conference 2023, New York, Call for Papers.
Co-organiser, Symposium: ‘Masculinities in Design: Objects, Identities and Practices’, (24-25 May 2022). Call for Papers
Speaker, ‘ Corporate vs Consultant: Conflicting Professional Identities in US Industrial Design’, session ‘Incorporating Design: Institutions, Markets and Mediation in the History of Design’, CAA Annual Conference 2022, 5 March 2022, Online event
Speaker, ‘The language of professionalism in design’, Young Academy Science Day, Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), (23 September 2021)
Convenor and Chair, Gender and the Design Profession, Workshop, University of Applied Arts Vienna, (21 April 2020)
Presenter, ‘Designing a Profession: Gaby Schreiber and Associates’, Women’s History Network Annual Conference, LSE, UK, (6-7 September 2019)
Archive co-ordination and management, Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany, (28 September 2018-11 March 2019)
Invited panelist, ‘Utopias’, ‘Transfashional’, State of Fashion 2018, Arnheim, Netherlands
Co-convenor and organizer, “International Design Organisations: Histories, Legacies, Values”, University of Brighton and Victor J. Papanek Foundation, (9-10 November 2017)
Co-organizer, ‘Papanek Symposium 2017: Design and Ethics’, Austrian Embassy, London, (22 September 2017)
Presenter, ‘Working from Home: Representing the Designer in Britain 1945-1960’, Conference: Cultural Work, University of Leicester, UK (7-8 September 2017).
Convenor and organizer, V&A Design Culture Salon, Angewandte Innovation Lab, University of Applied Arts Vienna (26 January 2017)
Invited Speaker, Guest lecture, “Transparency in Design”, Department of Visual Culture, Vienna Technical University, (23 January 2016)
Co-convenor and organizer, International roundtable discussion “International Design Organisations: Possibilities for Future Research”, University of Brighton (7 October 2016)
Presenter, “Looking Inwards and Facing Outwards: The Society of Industrial Artists and the Professionalisation of Design in Britain”, ICDHS International Conference, “Modernisms Locations” panel, Tapei (24-26 October 2016)
Curator and Organizer, Design Culture Salons Series Four, Victoria and Albert Museum, supported by the University of Brighton (2015-6)
Co-convenor with Dr Felice McDowell, Research Symposium “Fashioning Professionals”, V&A Museum, supported by the University of Brighton, V&A Museum and the London College of Fashion (April 2015)
Co-convenor and organizer “Proto-Publics: Sprint Workshop”, Imagination Lancaster, Supported by University of Brighton, Victoria and Albert Museum and AHRC (2015)
Presenter, “Visibility in the Design Studio: The Social, Material and Discursive Function of Being Seen at the Glasgow School of Art”, Material Culture in Action Conference, The Glasgow School of Art, (September 2015).
Co-convenor “Social Design Futures: Expert Workshop”, AHRC/V&A/University of Brighton (2015)
Video editor and interviewer Proto-Publics: expert interviews (2015)
Invited speaker, “Mapping the Design Profession in Britain”, AHRC/CDA Conference, British Museum, London (September 2015)
Invited Speaker, Conference paper “Mapping the Design Profession in Britain 1930-2010: What Holds it Together?” Design Culture: Object, Practice, Discipline, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, 16-19 (September 2014)
Co-curator and organizer, Design Culture Salon Series Three, V&A Museum, supported by University of Brighton (2014)
Curator “Portraits: Women Designers”, Fashion and Textiles Museum (March – July 2012), supported by University of Brighton Design Archives.
Awards
FWF Elise Richter Senior Post-Doctoral Fellowship, V740: ‘Professionalisation and its Discontents: Design 1930-1980’, 2020-
Smithsonian Foundation Baird Society Resident Scholar Fellowship, July/August 2017
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD Studentship, 2012-2015
AHRC MA Studentship, 2010-2012
Memberships
Book Reviews Editor, Journal of Design History, (2021-)
College Art Association, USA (CAA), (2021-)
Elected Fellow of The Young Academy, Austrian Academy of Sciences (2020-)
Design History Society (Treasurer 2015-2017)
Education
PhD , AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award, ‘Designing a Profession: The Structure, Organisation and Identity of the Design Profession in Britain, 1930-2010’, University of Brighton, 2012-2015, Supervisors: Prof. Catherine Moriarty, Prof. Jonathan Woodham and Frank Peters CEO. CSD. Examiners: Prof. Cheryl Buckley and Prof. Sean Nixon.
MA Cultural History (Distinction), AHRC Studentship, University of Manchester, 2010-12.
BA History (First Class Honours), University of Manchester, 2005-2008.