Harriet Atkinson

Dr Harriet Atkinson is a historian of art and design. Her research concerns government and official engagements with art and design; art, design and cultural diplomacy; the development and professionalisation of design practice; art, design and dress for propaganda and protest; and histories of exhibitions and world's fairs. Until July 2023 she is Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellow and Principal Investigator on the project '"The Materialisation of Persuasion": Modernist Exhibitions in Britain for Propaganda and Resistance, 1933 to 1953'.  She co-leads Centre for Design History's research strand on Graphic Design Histories (with Professor Jeremy Aynsley and Mandeep Sidhu).

As AHRC Leadership Fellow, Harriet is completing a book entitled Modernist exhibitions in Britain for propaganda and resistance, 1933-53: the materialisation of persuasion (Manchester University Press), a chapter for British Writing, Propaganda, and Cultural Diplomacy in the Second World War and Beyond (Bloomsbury Academic) and making a documentary film with the working title Art on the Streets, in collaboration with filmmakers Four Corners (for launch early 2023). 

Exhibitions Beyond Boundaries: Transnational Exchanges Through Art, Architecture and Design from 1945, co-edited with Dr Verity Clarkson (Brighton) and Dr Sarah Lichtman (Parsons), was published by Bloomsbury Academic in autumn 2022. Harriet's podcast series Graphic Interventions is available on Soundcloud, ITunes, Google Podcasts and Spotify.

Harriet's current AHRC Fellowship builds on her University of Brighton Rising Stars Award (2017-18), for a project entitled 'Information, Persuasion, Citizenship: Public Exhibitions 1914 to now'. 

While a Faculty Fellow based in the University of Brighton Design Archives from 2010 to 2013, she wrote a number of essays, reviews and her first monograph The Festival of Britain: A Land and its People (I.B. Tauris, 2012). She was section editor for 'design dissemination' for the major, three volume Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design (lead editor Professor Clive Edwards, 2015) and interviewer for the oral history of the Design History Society (led by Dr Linda Sandino).

Harriet was awarded her doctorate from the Royal College of Art and Victoria & Albert Museum's joint history of design programme in 2007. She studied for a BA (Hons) in English and Related Literature with History of Art at University of York and for a MA in Art Museum Studies at the Courtauld Institute, University of London. Harriet is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. 

Harriet has previously held a number of research awards including an AHRC Doctoral Award, British Academy Small Grant and Wingate Scholarship. Her research has also been supported by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, German Historical Institute Washington and Design History Society.

From 2015 to 2020 Harriet was Trustee and Research Grants Officer of the Design History Society. She is Advisory Board member for the Bloomsbury Design Library and regularly undertakes peer reviews for: journals including Journal of Design History, The Sculpture Journal, Literature & History, Contemporary British History; publishers including Routledge, Bloomsbury Academic, Berg, Palgrave Macmillan, Manchester University Press; academic conferences including DHS, International Conferences on Design History and Studies (ICDHS), Design Research Society (DRS), International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR); and academic grant applications + awards including Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, the Icelandic Research Fund and the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO). 

Harriet is interested in supervising PhDs focusing on histories of art, design and the urban environment; government or official uses of art and design, graphic design histories; art, design and dress for propaganda and protest; art, design and diplomacy; and exhibition and display histories. If you are planning a project that is connected to Harriet's research expertise, but not listed here, feel free to contact her to discuss it further. 

Harriet's current PhD students focus on themes ranging from political poster design, to conscientious objector art practices and clothing production and consumption during World War Two. She has examined PhDs at University of Southampton, University of Antwerp and University of Brighton.

Harriet welcomes media enquiries. She has extensive experience across print and broadcast media, including writing for newspapers (The Guardian, The Independent, Yorkshire Evening Post); for magazines (BBC History and British Archaeology); being interviewed live on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live; doing pre-recorded interviews for BBC Radio 5 Live and Times Radio; being interviewed for History Extra Podcast (among other podcast appearances).

Harriet draws in her research and teaching from previous experience working on cultural policy and funding for a range of public organisations including advising ministers on National Lottery distribution at Department for Culture Media & Sport; assessing grant applications at Heritage Lottery Fund, the Museums & Galleries Commission and Greater London Enterprise; and working as Culture and Regeneration Manager with London local authorities at London Councils. She has also worked as fundraiser with a range of charitable and community organisations including as project manager for Orleans House Gallery's HLF-funded courtyard development education project and for Montpelier Community Nursery, which won a 2013 RIBA London Regional Award, a 2013 RIBA National Award and the 2013 RIBA Steven Lawrence Prize (for the best construction project under £1m).

Since 2013 Harriet has taught on the University of Brighton's BA (Hons) History of Art & Design programmes (History of Art & Design; Visual Culture; Fashion & Dress History; Philosophy Politics Art). She teaches across core modules on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and has offered special subjects including 'The Making of the Modern Home' and 'Understanding Exhibitions and Creating Displays'. Harriet has also taught Critical & Cultural Studies to BA (Hons) Graphic Design, BA (Hons) Illustration, BA (Hons) Design and Craft and BA (Hons) Fashion and Textiles.

In 2018-19 she was Admissions Tutor for the four History of Art & Design pathways. She has a PGCert in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education and is Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). From 2014 to 2016, Harriet taught Cultural Studies to Fashion Textiles and Jewellery students at Central St Martins, London. From 2016 to 2019 Harriet was External Examiner on the Cert HE and Grad Cert courses in the History of Art & Architecture at Birkbeck College and from 2019 to 2020 she was External Examiner on the BA (Hons) Graphic Communication at University of Reading.