Director of Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation

  • Research and Innovation
  • Research
Professor Jane Pavitt

Professor Pavitt leads research, knowledge exchange and innovation activity across the university, fostering research excellence with real social and cultural impact, supporting the development of research and innovation funding bids and building external partnerships leading to knowledge exchange. She directs the university’s submission to REF2029. Her career spans research, teaching and academic leadership, as well as extensive work in the museums and galleries sector.

Bio

Prior to joining UCA in 2025, Professor Pavitt was the Head of Research for the newly initiated Zaha Hadid Foundation, a charitable foundation devoted to architecture and design, which she joined at its outset to lead educational, curatorial and research activity. Previously, she was Head of Impact at Kingston University where she directed their successful REF 2021 submission which included outstanding performance in art and design. She has also advised universities internationally on developing research impact in the arts and in shaping strategies for supporting practice-research.

From 2010-17 she was Dean of Humanities at the Royal College of Art, where she oversaw substantial growth in its PhD community, including AHRC funded collaborative doctoral awards with museums and galleries. She also headed the V&A/RCA History of Design postgraduate programme, graduates of which have gone on to careers in design, academia and museums worldwide.

As the V&A’s principal research fellow (1997-2010), in collaboration with the University of Brighton, Professor Pavitt curated a series of ground-breaking exhibitions in modern and contemporary art and design, some of which have toured internationally. Her exhibitions have included Brand.New (2000), Brilliant: Lights and Lighting (2004); Cold War Modern: Art and Design 1945-70 (2008-9) and Postmodernism: Style and Subversion (2011-12). Cold War Modern toured to Italy and Lithuania, where it was part of the 2009 European Capital of Culture programme in Vilnius. Postmodernism also toured to Italy and Switzerland. In 2017 she curated Superstructures: The New Architecture 1960-1990 at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich. She is the author/co-editor of their supporting publications. She has published extensively on architecture and design, and in collaboration with museums internationally.

She is currently an adviser to the Design Museum’s curatorial committee and is a regular chair and panel member for AHRC and UKRI. She was a sub-panel assessor for art and design for REF 2021 and is a Deputy Chair for the same sub-panel for REF 2029.  

 

Research statement

My research interests include modern architecture and design, curatorial theory and practice, and the history of exhibitions, museums and collecting practices. I have led and co-led several major research projects devoted to 20th century design and culture and leading to international exhibitions. My current work is focussed on British architectural modernism in the mid 20th century.

Recent publications:

  • Pavitt, J; ‘Making the Zaha Hadid Foundation’, in Arnold, D., in Rereading Women and Architecture: Female agency and the discourses of architectural history, Routledge, 2024
  • Pavitt, J; ‘The Stylistic End Games of Modernism: High Tech in Criticism and Theory’; in Building-Object: Shared and Contested Territories of Design and Architecture, Bloomsbury, 2021

Research supervision

I have supervised over 10 PhDs to completion (at the University of Brighton, RCA and Kingston University), including practice-research, on subjects ranging from architecture, interior and product design, graphic design and fashion as well as curatorial and theoretical projects. I am particularly interested in PhD proposals with a focus on archives, collections and exhibition practices, and welcome enquiries in all the above areas.

  • Member, AHRC Peer Review College
  • Chair and Panellist, UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Scheme
  • Advisory Member, Design Museum Curatorial Committee
  • Member, Community Panel, Alton Regeneration Scheme, Wandsworth Council
  • I regularly review for international funding councils, academic journals and am a prior advisory and editorial board member of the Journal of Design History.  
  1. Previous external examination includes (PhD): University of Sussex, University of Brighton, University of the Arts London, Bartlett Institute, UCL.
  2. Chair of exam boards for Kingston and RCA.
  3. I regularly act as external examiner for PhDs in my specialist subject areas.
Professor Jane Pavitt

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