Home - Design History Society

The Design History Society is one of the leading organisations that promotes and supports the study of design histories, both in the UK and internationally. Through its journal, annual conference and programme of events it brings together all those engaged in the subject – students, researchers, educators, designers, designer-makers, critics and curators among them. It also acts as an advocate for the subject in a number of different contexts.

Blog

Crafting Furniture in the Global South: Renewable by Origin, Unsustainable by Design: Bio-based Plastics and Furniture from Brazil

22 October 2026

As part of our ‘Crafting Furniture in the Global South: Contemporary Practices, Histories and Futures’ series, Geoff...

Blog

Crafting Furniture in the Global South: Where Were the Women in Indian Design?

8 October 2026

In this week's Crafting Furniture in the Global South blog, independent design researcher and creative producer Arpna...

Blog

Provocative Objects: An Art Deco Table, Reattributed

30 September 2026

In this month’s Provocative Objects blog, Sara Shields-Rivard, PhD candidate in Art History at Queen’s University...

News

Announcing the 2026 Design Writing Prize Winner and runner up

29 September 2026

We are delighted to announced that Katie Meaney, designer, educator and former fellow at the Smithsonian Institution,...

News

Thank you to outgoing JDH Chair Grace Lees-Maffei and welcome to the incoming Chair and Managing Editor

Prof Dr Grace Lees-MaffeiThe Design History Society and Journal of Design History would like to thank outgoing Chair of…

Blog

Crafting Furniture in the Global South: Furniture as Lens: The Gilded Salons of Egyptian Homes

24 September 2026

The next installment of our Crafting Furniture in the Global South series explores the salons of Egyptian homes...

News

Trustee vacancy

22 September 2026

The DHS is recruiting a new Trustee.The 3 year tenure of Alex Banister, current Communications Officer, is coming to...

News

Thank you to the convenors of the 2026 DHS Annual Conference

21 September 2026

Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the DHS annual conference 'Design in an Age of Uncertainty'...

News

Announcing the Design History Society Annual Conference 2027

21 September 2026

The Design History Society Annual Conference 2027 comes to Chelsea College of Arts, UAL, exploring Veiling/Unveiling:...

News

Announcing the Design History Society Annual Conference 2027

21 September 2026

The Design History Society Annual Conference 2027 comes to Chelsea College of Arts, UAL, exploring Veiling/Unveiling:...

News

Routes to Design History: Episode 15 - Johanna Agerman Ross

14 September 2026

In the next episode of our podcast series: Routes to Design History, we speak with Johanna Agerman Ross, a curator...

News

Available online! 2026 Student Publication - Threads, Traces, and Artefacts: Revisiting Global Design History

10 September 2026

We are delighted to announce that the inaugural DHS Student Publication Threads, Traces, and Artefacts: Revisiting...

Blog

Crafting Furniture in the Global South: The Teak Dispositif in Lanna Forest and the Extractive System of Danish Modern

10 September 2026

This week, doctoral researcher Metini Krivanish shares research examining unequal global resource distribution and...

News

DHS AGM report 2025-26 now available

We are pleased to report that the Annual Report for the period 2025-26 has now been published online ahead of the AGM…

Event

Virtual Roundtable: The Promise and Peril of Digitization in Design History Research

27 August 2026 14:00 - 16:00

online

As a program to tie-in with the upcoming DHS annual conference - Design in an Age of Uncertainty - this virtual...

Blog

Crafting Furniture in the Global South: Portuguese Modern Design and the Contemporary Materialities of the Empire

20 August 2026

In the next instalment of our Crafting Furniture in the Global South blog series, Francesca Vita, post-doctoral...

News

DHS online event recordings now published

19 August 2026

We are pleased to announce that the recordings of two recent online events have recently been published on our...

Blog

Crafting Furniture in the Global South: A chair is a chair is a chair is a chair: Use-based furniture history as an anti-colonial technique

5 August 2026

In the first of our new blog series Crafting Furniture in the Global South: Contemporary Practices, Histories and...

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