In September 2024 UCA Canterbury hosted the 2024 Design History Society conference, on the theme of “Border Control: Excursion, Incursion and Exclusion”.

Event details

  • 5 September 2024 - 7 September 2024

    10:00-17:00 (GMT)

    Rochester House, St George’s Place, Canterbury CT1 1UT

It was convened by Professor Victoria Kelley, Dr Jessica Kelly (London Met), Professor Anne Massey, Professor Cat Rossi, and Dr Kim Trogal. The conference was premised on the argument that borders are an ever more pressing issue in the 2020s.

The conference brought together the international design history research community to explore design’s role in borders and the effect of borders on design.

Dr Bess Williamson’s keynote lecture “The Disability History of Sensory Design: On the Borders of Care and Design”, which was delivered online at the conference, is available to view:

Conference details

Keynote speakers

  • Dr Bess Williamson: The Disability History of Sensory Design: On the Borders of Care and Design
  • Dr Nishat Awan: Circulations: An Emerging Architecture of Unsettlement
  • Prof Alison Clarke: Design Anthropology: Experiments in Cold War Industrial Design and Social Science

Academic committee

UCA

Executive committee

JDH editorial board