Design History Society annual conference 2024 convenor announcement

Conference & Events

21 September 2023

We are delighted to announce that the 2024 Design History Society conference will be hosted by the University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury, UK. Convened by Jessica Kelly, Victoria Kelley, Anne Massey, Catharine Rossi and Kim Trogal, the 2024 conference theme is:

Border Control: excursion, incursion and exclusion

Thursday 5th - Saturday 7th September 2024

Borders are an ever more pressing issue in the 2020s. Whether geopolitical, human and non-human, or digital and physical, the solidification and liquification of borders raises questions around design's role in creating, undoing and negotiating divides. The significance of borders today is highlighted by the interlaced ramifications of Brexit, Covid-19, international conflict, the climate emergency, the dissolution of colonial borders, gender binaries and the rise of polarising social media platforms. In this context it seems timely for design history to debate the implications of borders past, present and future. The 2024 DHS conference will invite explorations of design’s role in borders and the effect of borders on design and asks how looking at borders and boundaries can help further design history more widely.

A Call for Papers with be shared on 1st December 2023 with a deadline for submission on the 29th February 2024.