David Crowley – curriculum vitae
Address
Humanities,
Royal College of Art,
Kensington Gore,
London SW7 2EU.
T: +207 590 4485
f: +207 590 4490
e: david.crowley@rca.ac.uk
Date of Birth
29 May 1966
Academic Positions
 2010 – Professor and Head of the Programme of Critical Writing in Art and Design at
the Royal College of Art;
 1999- 2010 Deputy Head of the Department of the History of Design, Royal College
of Art (Acting Head since 2009) / Senior Tutor in the Department of Historical and
Critical Studies, Royal College of Art;
 1993-1999 – Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton in the School of Historical
and Critical Studies
 1991-1993 – Lecturer at Staffordshire University in the Department of Art and
Design History
 1990-1993 – visiting tutor at Camberwell College of Arts, London Institute.
 1989-1990 – Researcher, Research Department, Victoria and Albert Museum
London.
Supervision of research students
I have supervised six PhD and I MPhil students to completion. I currently supervise ten PhD
and MPhil students at the RCA.
Education
 1994 - Postgraduate certificate in Learning and Teaching, University of Brighton;
 1990 - MA History of Design with distinction, Royal College of Art / Victoria and
Albert Museum;
 1987 BA (Hons) History of Design first class, University of Brighton;
Awards
Iris Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Study of the Decorative Arts by a mid career
scholar, awarded by the Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2008.
Fellowships and grants
 September 2005-September 2006 – AHRC Research Leave (with match-funding from
the RCA and the V&A).
 June-July 2002 – British Academy / Polish Academy of Sciences fellowship at the
Instytut Sztuki, Warsaw.
 1990-1993 – European Union ‘Tempus’ award to research design in Hungary and
Poland
 1989 – British Council / Polish Government post-graduate studies scholarship,
Kraków Academy of Fine Art.
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1987 – British Council / Polish Government post-graduate studies scholarship,
Kraków Academy of Fine Art.
Major Publications
Books
 Dan and Lia Perjovschi – the Power of the Margins (University of Plymouth Press /
Romanian Cultural Institute), forthcoming spring 2012;
 Out of the Ordinary: Design in Poland in the C20th (Adam Mickiewicz Institute, 2011)
– author of a number of introductions to different sections in this book.
 Introduction to Ilona Karwinska, Cold War Neon (New York: Mark Batty Publishing,
2011);
 Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc, edited volume for
Northwestern University Press (co-edited with Susan Reid), 2010;
 Posters of the Cold War, V&A Publishing, 2008;
 Cold War Modern. Design 1945-1970, V&A Publishing, 2008, co-authored with Jane
Pavitt. This book has been translated into Italian and is published by Museo di arte
moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto;
 Warsaw, Reaktion Books, 2003;
 Socialist Spaces. Sites of Everyday Life in the Eastern Bloc, co-editor and contributor,
Berg with Susan Reid, 2002;
 Socialism and Style. Material Culture in Post-war Eastern Europe, contributor and coeditor with Susan Reid, Berg, 2000;
 Graphic Design. Reproduction and Representation since 1800, co-author with Paul
Jobling, MUP, 1996;
 National Style and Nation-state. Design in Poland from the Vernacular Revival to the
International Style, MUP, 1992 (published in a Japanese translation by Sairyuu-sha,
2006 and one chapter was translated into Polish and published in Autoportret,
autumn 2010);
 Victorian Style, Apple Press, 1990 (reissued by David Charles in 2003).
Articles in journals, magazines and anthologies
 ‘The Ruins of Socialism: Reconstruction and Destruction in Warsaw’ in Power and
Architecture edited by Michael Minkenberg for Berghahn – forthcoming;
 ‘Humanity Rearranged: The Czechoslovak and Polish Pavilions at Expo 58’ in West
86th Street, v. 19, no. 1 (spring 2012), pp. 88-105.
 ‘From Homeless to Homelessness’ in Robin Schuldenfrei, ed., Atomic Dwelling.
Anxiety, Domesticity and Postwar Architecture (Routledge, 2012)
 ‘It’s a fiction, an addiction’ in Creative Review, November 2011
 ‘Na początku, było słowa …’ in 2+3d, 41, autumn 2011, pp. 32-39.
 ‘Out of Hand’ in Eye, Summer 2011, pp. 52-59.
 ‘Czym jest czytanie?’ in 2+3D nr 38 (1/2011), pp.28-31
‘Drawn From Life: Gerd Arntz in Creative Review (March 2011)
 ‘The Art of Cybernetic Communism’ in Ronduda and Farquharson, eds, Star City: The
Future under Communism (CSW, Warsaw), 2011.
 ‘Memory in Pieces: The Symbolism of the Ruin in Warsaw after 1944’ in Journal of
Modern European History, Vo l . 9, no. 3 (2011) pp. 351-371
 ‘The Designers Who Helped Rebuild Britain’ in Creative Review (December 2010)
 ‘New Views, Old Walls’ in Best Before, edited by Dominik Lejman (Bec Zmiana
Foundation, 2010);
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‘Self-depracating, sermonising and staying hard' in Creative Review, October 2010,
pp. 64-7
‘Reanimating the Future: Paulina Olowska’, essay for the Steirische Herbst Festival
catalogue, Sept. 2010, Graz.
‘The Double Lives of Roman Cieslewicz’ in Creative Review (July 2010) 27-32.
‘Zachmurzenie zmienne. Multimedialne projekty Troiki’ in 2+3d (February 2010) 2230.
‘Two plus Two Must Always be Four’ in Creative Review, December 2009, pp. 52-5.
‘Sztuka dizajnu’ in 2+3D (April 2009)
‘Rewizja Osobista / Personal Search’, introductory essay in the book published to
accompanying DVD release of Andrzej Leszczynski and Witold Kostenko’s 1972 film
(Piktogram), December 2009.
‘Print and Protest in the Disunited States’ in Creative Review, August 2009, pp. 46-8.
‘Spain: Forgotten Man of European Design’ in Creative Review, July 2009, pp. 52-4.
‘The Art of Noise’ in Creative Review, June 2009, pp. 46-9.
‘Known Universe’ in Creative Review, March 2009, pp 48-50
‘Architecture and the Image of the Future in the People’s republic of Poland’ in The
Journal of Architecture, v. 14, n. 1 (February 2009), pp. 67-84;*
‘The Dark Side of the Modern Home: Ilya Kabakov and Gregor Schneider’s Ruins’ in
Sparke, Massey, Keeble and Martin, eds., Designing the Modern Interior: From the
Victorians to the Present Day, Berg 2009, pp. 233-47
‘Love Amongst the Ruins’ in AA Files, 58 (Spring 2009), pp 62-9;
’Paris or Moscow?: Warsaw Architects and the Image of the Modern City in the
1950s’ in Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History - Volume 9, Number
4 (Fall 2008) pp. 769-798 (also reproduced in György Péteri, ed., Imagining the West
in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010), pp.
105-130);*
‘Design at the End of the World’ in Icon (October 2008), pp. 197-202;
‘Seeing Japan, Imagining Poland: Polish Art and the Russo-Japanese War’ appeared
in The Russian Review, vol. 67, no. 1, January 2008, pp. 50-69;*
‘Strikethrough’ in Eye, 2008, no. 69 v. 19
‘Design as Weapon of the Cold War’ in Creative Review October 2008;
‘Fleet Street of Walls’ in Eye, October 2007, pp. 4-8;
‘Socialist Recreation? Amateur Film and Photography in the People's Republic of
Poland’ in E.A Rees, Péter Apor and Balázs Apor, eds., The Sovietisation of Eastern
Europe. New Perspectives on the Postwar Period (Washington, 2007) pp. 93-114;
‘The Cold War at Home’ in 2+3D, October 2007;
‘Home Sweet Home’ in Zeszyty Artystyczne, January 2006, pp. 39-47.
‘Manhattan’s Doubles’, Piktogram, no. 4, 2006;
Norman Foster’ in Renata Krzewska, Agnieszka Anielska and Ewa R Porebska, eds.,
Dokad zmerza architektura? (Where is Architecture Heading?), Murator 2006, pp.
107-120.
‘The Modern World’ in Creative Review, April 2006, pp. 52-56;
‘Admen plunder the past – with no history to call their own’ ‘agenda piece’ for Eye
magazine, no 57, Autumn 2005, pp 74-75;
‘Raj Utracony?’ in Piktogram, no. 2, 2005, pp. 42-57;
‘‘Domicide and other Cold War Anxieties’ in Mart Kalm, Ingrid Ruudi, eds.,
Constructed Happiness. Domestic Environment in the Cold War Era, Tallinn, 2005, pp.
46-64;
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‘Post-war Dream Worlds: Domesticity in Europe after 1945’, co-authored with Paul
Betts (University of Sussex), this essay introduces a theme issue of Journal of
Contemporary History, vol. 40, no., 2, Spring 2005, pp. 213-236;
‘Kelmscott windows: Kalotoszeg Views: The Arts and Crafts Movement Looks
Abroad’ Centropa (special issue on the Arts and Crafts Movement in Central Europe),
vol. 4, no. 3, September 2004, pp. 281-92;
‘Modernista XXI Wieku’ in Architektura, October, 2003, pp. 42-4;
‘Na Nowy Wiek’ in Architektura, September 2003, pp. 17-27;
‘Projektowanie graficzne w czasach moralnego niepokoju’ in 2+3d, 4, 2003 pp. 64-8.
‘Making the Socialist Home in postwar Eastern Europe’ in Mark Pittaway, ed.,
Globalization and Europe, 2003, (an Open University text book produced as part of
Europe: Culture and Identities in a Contested Continent level 3 course), pp. 249-293;
‘Pragmatism and Fantasy in the Making of the Zakopane Style’ in Centropa, v. 2, n. 3,
September 2002, pp. 182-196;
‘Shadows in the City: Public Representations and Private Identities in Warsaw during
the Stalin Era’ in Jeremy Howard, ed., By Force of By Will: The Art of External Might
and Internal Passion, St Andrews Studies in Art History, St Andrews, 2002, pp. 35-48.
‘Detach, detour and consume’ in Eye, Winter 2001, pp. 18-27;
‘Finding Poland in the margins. The case of the Zakopane style’ in Journal of Design
History, 14/2, 2001, pp. 105-116 (also published as ‘Polska odnaleziona w Tatrach regionalne, narodowe I miedzynarodowe cechy stylu zakopianskiego’ in Jacek
Purchla, ed., Sztuka okolo 1900 w Europie Srodkowej, ICC, Kraków, 1997, pp. 195205) and an extract will appear in Rebecca Houze and Grace Lees- Maffei, eds., The
Design History Reader (Berg, 2010)
‘The Peasant in the City: Embroidery in the Writings on Architecture in AustriaHungary around 1900’ in Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, ed., Borders in Art:
Revisiting Kunstgeographie, Institute of Art, 2000, pp. 127-138;
'Of Cartoons, Cabarets and Castles - claims on Polishness in Kraków c. 1905', an
essay in M. Gee, ed., The City in Central Europe, Ashgate Books, 2000, pp. 101-123;
‘The Aesthetics and the Politics of The Vernacular Revival in Central Europe around
1900’ in Francis Ames-Lewis and Piotr Paszkiewicz, eds., Art and Politics, Institute of
Art, Warsaw, 1999, pp. 115-126;
'"Beauty, everyday and for all" - the social vision of design in Stalinist Poland' an
essay in J. Attfield, ed., Utility Reassessed, MUP, 1999;
'Stalinism and Modernist Craft in Poland' in Journal of Design History, vol. 11, no. 1,
1998, pp. 71-83 (also published in ‘Stalinism and the Crafts in Poland’ in Tanya
Harrod, Obscure Objects of Desire? Crafts Council (collected conference papers),
1997);
'People's Warsaw / Popular Warsaw' in Journal of Design History, vol. 10, no. 2,
1997, pp. 203-224;
‘Researching post-war Polish culture’ in SHERA Bulletin, 2, 1996;
‘The Uses of Peasant Culture in Austria-Hungary in the late 19thC and early 20thC' in
Studies in the Decorative Arts, vol. 2, no. 2, Spring 1995, pp. 2-27; (This essay has
been translated in to German and appears as ‘Zur Aneignung bäuerlicher Formen in
Österreich-Ungarn im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts’ in Anita Aigner, ed.,
Vernakulare Moderne, Grenzüberschreitingen in der Arcitektur um 1900, transcript
Verlag, Bielefeld, 2010, pp. 57-84);
‘Building the World Anew: Design in the People's Republic of Poland’ in Journal of
Design History, vol. 7, no. 3, 1994, pp. 187-204;
'Soft touch, Hard Sell' in Design, January 1992, pp. 38-40;
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Other small articles have appeared in The Economist, Design, Journal of Design History,
World Architecture, Creative Review, History Today and Blueprint. I have also published
exhibition and book reviews in Journal of Design History, The Art Book, Creative Review, Eye,
Print Quarterly, Centropa, World Architecture, New Statesman, Design and Form (Germany),
West 86th Street and Journal of European Studies.
Catalogues and catalogue essays
 The Power of Fantasy. Modern and Contemporary Art from Poland (Prestel, 2011) –
forthcoming – co-authored book published to accompany an exhibition at BOZAR,
Brussels (June- September 2011);
 ‘Paper Architecture; The Columbaria of Brodsky and Utkin’ in Pavitt and Adamson,
Postmodernism. Style and Subversion 1970-1990 (V&A Publications, 2011), pp. 1403;
 ‘Light after Dark’ in Ilona Karwinska Warszawa Polski Neon, Agora, 2008;
 ‘In the Shadow of Monuments: Philippe Chancel’s North Korea’ in the catalogue to
the Photographers’ Gallery Deutsche Börse Photography Annual Photography Prize
Catalogue, 2007, pp. 207-11;
 ‘The Art of Consumption’ in Lukasz Ronduda, Avant-Gardes 123, Centrum Sztuki,
Warsaw, 2007, pp. 16-32;
 ‘National Modernisms’ in Christopher Wilk, ed., Modernism. Designing a New
World, 1914-1939, V&A Publications, 2006, pp. 341-374;
 ‘Graphic Reports: Graphic Design Journalism in Britain from the 1950s’, an essay in
the exhibition catalogue for the Communicate! Independent Graphic Design in
Britain since the Sixties exhibition at the Barbican Gallery, London, September 2004,
pp. 182-199;
 ‘Art Deco in Central Europe’ in Woods, Benton and Benton, eds., Art Deco, V&A
Museum, London, 2003, pp. 190-201;
 ‘Martin Boyce’, essay in Becks Futures 2000 exhibition catalogue published by the
Institute of Contemporary Art, London. 2000;
 'Martin Boyce', essay for exhibition catalogue, Jerwood Space, London, February
2000;
 The Lost Arts of Europe, Haslemere Educational Museum, 2000, editor of
anthology/catalogue and contributor of an essay 'Haslemere and the Edges of
Europe', pp. 44-56;
 'Budapest: National Capital, International Metropolis', an essay in P. Greenhalgh,
ed., Art Nouveau, 1890-1914, ex. cat. Victoria and Albert Museum, 2000, pp. 346359;
 Andrew Kingham: Drawing with Metal exhibition catalogue for Münster Museum für
Lackunst, May 1999;
 'The Propaganda Poster' in Margaret Timmers. ed., The Power of the Poster, ex. cat.,
Victoria and Albert Museum Publications, 1998, pp. 100-45;
 '"Sztuka niezaleznosci i intelektu" Obior Polskiej Szkoly Plakatu w Europie
Zachodniej' in the catalogue of the 100 lat polskiej sztuki plakatu exhibition, Cracow,
July-August 1993, pp. 25-29.
Conference papers and other talks
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‘Landscapes of Memory: Politics, Identity, and the Symbolism of the Ruin in Warsaw
after 1944’ at Center for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University,
Sweden;
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‘’The Body Electric: Cybernetics in Eastern European Art in the 1960s’ at Utopia II:
Russian Art and Culture, 1930-1989 at the Courtauld Institute, London, November
2011;
‘The Past and Future of Critical Design’ at the Łódź Design Festival, October 2011;
‘In the beginning was the hand ... handwriting and graphic design’, keynote address
at the Torun Biennale of Graphic Design, May 2011;
‘The Art of Remembering and Forgetting Warsaw’ keynote address at the Warsaw
since 1990 conference, Technische Universität Darmstadt, May 2011;
‘Cold War Remains’ at ‘Cold War : Past, Present, Future’ conference in CZDK,
Belgrade and Sarajevo, April 2010;
‘Socialist Modern: The Dual Faces of Modern Architecture in Eastern Europe before
1989’ at the Naitonal Gallery Vilnius, Lithuania, September 2010;
On stage interview in conjunction with exhibition on affect in the work of various
artists from Eastern Europe at Calvert 22, London, May 2010;
‘Modernism and the Nation’, Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, April 2010;
‘Cybernetic Communism: Experimental Art and New Technology in Eastern Europe in
the 1960s’ at the opening of ‘Star City: the Future under Communism’ at
Nottingham Contemporary, February 2010;
‘Critical Design’ at the Vienna Academy of Fine Art, November 2009;
‘Spectres of October’ at the ‘Revolution We Love You’ conference, Tate Modern,
November 2009;
‘Memory in Ruins: Remaking Warsaw after 1944’ at the Post-Catastrophic Cities:
Total War and Urban Recovery in Twentieth Century Europe conference, German
Historical Institute, Warsaw, October 2009;
‘Double Agents: Reflections on Architecture and Design in the Cold War’ at the
Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnie, Warsaw, October 2009;
‘Double Agents; Reflections on Architecture and Design in the Cold War’, SCALES
conference, Budapest, October 2009;
‘The Art of the Crowd’ in the Solidarity / Solidarities conference, University College
London, June 2009;
‘Cybernetics versus the Future in Poland in the 1960s’ at the ‘Rebels, Martyrs and
the Others: Rethinking Polish Modernism’ conference at Birkbeck College, University
of London, June 2009;
‘Architecture in the Image of Man’ at the Sites of Convergence conference, Central
European University, Budapest, May 2009;
‘Remaking Warsaw: Architecture and Memory in the Polish Capital, 1943-2009’ in
the Max Weber Lecture Series, New York University, April 2009.
‘Double Agents: Design in Cold War’ at the Deutsche Dinge. Design im doppelten
Deutschland von 1949 bis 1989 conference in Hannover organized by the
Gesellschaft für Designgeschichte, 13-14 March 2009;
‘Reflections on Cold War Modern’ at the Modern Interiors Research Centre at
Kingston University, February 2009;
‘Double Agents: Modern Design in the Cold War’ keynote address at New Sciences of
Protection: Futures: Time, Control and Insecurity conference Lancaster University,
May 2008 (Also delivered at the Design History Identity conference at the University
of Venice, September 2008);
‘Nineteen Sixty-Seven’ at The legacy of 1968 for Contemporary Art in Central Eastern
Europe and beyond conference at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków April 2008;
‘Socialist Modern and its Discontents: Architecture and Graphic Design in Eastern
Europe During the Cold War’ at the Bard Graduate Center, New York, April 2008;
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‘Art, Architecture and Design for the People’, Panel Discussion at the Vienna
International Art Fair, April 2008;
‘Socmodernism: The Architecture of Leisure in Poland in the 1960s and 1970s’ at the
Freiheit/Freizeit: Fluchtwege aus dem Alltag in der Architektur Ost- und
Westeuropas 1960–1980 conference, ETH Zürich, November 2007
Socmodernism: The Architecture of Leisure in Poland in the 1960s and 1970s’ at
Different Modernisms, Different Avant-Gardes, KUMU, Tallinn, Estonia, September,
2007;
‘The Home of the Future: Modern Design in the Cold War’, Goethe Institute,
Krakow, May 2007;
‘The Reconstruction Reflex: The Faces of Warsaw’ University of Bologna, May 2007;
‘Reading Snapshots: Amateur Photography in the Eastern Bloc’ in the History
Department of Bristol University in December 2006;
‘Internationalism and nationalism in Central European Architecture in the 1930s’ key
note address at the Zionist Modernism and other Sites of Modernist Particularities
conference, Shenkar Forum for Culture and Society, Tel Aviv, March 2007;
‘Cityscape after a Battle: Four Faces of Post-War Warsaw’ key note address at the
Cumulus Conference, Warsaw Academy of Fine arts, October 2006;
Paris or Moscow? Warsaw Architects and the Image of the Modern City in the
1950s’ at the Imagining the West symposium organized by the Programme of East
European Cultures and Societies (University of Trondheim), Manchester University,
June 2006;
‘Memory in Ruins. Photography in Post-War Warsaw’ Camera/Constructs, UEL, April
2006;
‘Socialist Leisure and Modern Architecture in Poland in the 1950s’ at the Reponse les
limites: l’architecture a travers l’espace, le temps et les disciplines conference (INHA
/ SAH) Paris, Sept. 2005;
‘New Cultural Spaces, New Cultural Politics? Art and Performance in Poland after
the Thaw’ to be presented at the ‘Nineteen Fifty-Six’ conference, Oxford Brookes
University, September 2004;
‘Public and Private conceptions of the Home during the Thaw’, Imagining the ColdWar Home, Tallinn, May 2004;
‘Looking for Poland in Japan: Polish art world responses to the Russo-Japanese War’
at ‘Re-imagining Culture in the Russo-Japanese War’, at Birkbeck College, University
of London in March 2004;
‘Remembering and Forgetting on the Streets of Warsaw’ at The Space Between Art
and Architecture, CCA, Glasgow, May 2003;
‘The Public Lives of Private Spaces: Discourses on Domesticity in Gomulka’s Poland’,
America Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Pittsburgh, 2002;
‘William Morris and Europe’ at Els Juliols, University of Barcelona, June 2002;
‘Invisible Warsaw’ at the Modernism in Eastern European Art and Architecture
conference, MIT, September 2001;
‘Art Nouveau in Central Europe’ Art Nouveau, V&A Museum, June 2000;
‘Shopping With Stalin’ in the 'Commodities, Culture and Consumption' strand of the
RGS/IBG, University of Sussex, January 2000;
‘Socialist Streets: Warsaw vistas in the 1950s and 1960s’ - Signs of the Times: The
Poster in Central Europe after 1945 conference, November 1999; Moravian Gallery,
Brno, Czech Republic (and, again, in the second half of this conference in
Manchester Metropolitan University in Feb. 2000);
“Conceptions of the Home in Postwar Poland”, Design History Society conference,
Nottingham Trent University, Sept. 1999;
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‘Kobro and Poland: International Constructivism and National Culture’ 'Katarzyna
Kobro' at Henry Moore Institute/Leeds City Art Gallery, June 1999;
‘Trymand and the modernist view of Warsaw’ 'By will or by force. The Art of External
Might and Internal Passion ' at University of St Andrews, March 1999;
“The Polish Poster School” at 'The Power of the Poster' symposium at the Victoria
and Albert Museum, June 1998;
‘The Peasant in the City - embroidery in writings on architecture in Austria-Hungary
around 1900’ at the 'Borders' symposium held at UEA, April 1998;
‘Imagining Audiences in Stalinist Poland’ at College Art Association Annual
Conference, New York, February 1997;
‘The Politics of Invisibility: the Crafts in Stalinist Poland’ 'Obscure Objects of Desire?',
Crafts Council / UEA, January 1997;
‘The Politics of the Vernacular Revival in Central Europe c. 1900’, 'Art and Politics',
Instytut Sztuki, Warsaw, September 1996;
‘William Morris and the Politics of National Revival in Central Europe’ 'Morris
Reassessed', Victoria and Albert Museum, June 1996;
‘The Positivism of Technology and the Romanticism of Art: The Politics of the
Museum in Krakow after 1866’ 'Histories and Museums of Decorative Art',
international conference in St Petersburg, May 1996;
‘Nationalism and vernacularism in Austrian Poland, c. 1900’ Association of Art
Historians annual conference, University of Northumbria, Newcastle, April 1996;
‘Finding Poland in the Tatras: Warsaw Politics and the Zakopane Style’ Art and
Design in Central Europe c. 1900’, international conference in Kraków, October
1995;
‘The National Politics of Vernacularism in Partitioned Poland’ Association of Art
Historians annual conference in Birmingham, Spring 1994;
‘Cabarets and Cartoons in Krakow, 1905’ ‘The City in Central Europe’ conference,
University of Northumbria, September 1994 (also presented at the ‘'Art and National
Identity', international conference at Birkbeck College, London, 1995);
‘The Symbolism of the Peasant in Stalinist Poland’ ‘Design and Reconstruction’ study
day at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, January 1994;
‘Eminent Europeans’ study day at the Crafts Council, London, 1992;
‘1989 and all that: Design after Communism’ ‘Design and Democracy’ at the Design
Museum, March 1990;
‘Socialist Realism by Design?’ ‘Industry and Anti-Industry’ Design History annual
conference, 1990;
‘Politics and the Mechanisation of Printing: The story of The Times’, ‘Word and
Image’ Design History Society annual conference, 1989.
Conferences organised
 ‘The Last Utopians. Experimental Architecture in the 1960s’ at the V&A, November
2008;
 ‘Cold War Cultures’, two-day conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
November 2008 (organized with Jane Pavitt);
 ‘Socialist Luxury’ a one-day symposium at the Victoria and Albert Museum, January
2006 (organized with Susan Reid), organised with funding from the Phillips Price
Memorial Fund;
 ‘Art, History and Memory in Central Europe since 1989’ strand at the Association of
Art Historians Old and New? Conference in Nottingham in March 2004 (strand
convened with Deborah Schultz, University of Sussex);
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"Local strategies. International ambitions. Modern art and Central Europe 1918 1969" organised by the Czech Institute of Art History in Prague, June 2003;
‘The Post-War European Home’ symposium, hosted by the AHRB Centre for the
Study of the Domestic Interior, RCA, London, May 2003;
‘Craft and Theories of Identity’ strand at the Theorising Craft conference, Edinburgh
College of Art, 2002;
Design History Society Annual Conference hosted by the V&A/RCA Joint Course in
the History of Design, September 2000;
‘Peasants Real and Imagined: representations of the European Peasantry around
1900’, 2-day conference at the University of Brighton, April 2000;
‘Socialist Things, Identities and Places’ symposium, Victoria and Albert Museum,
London, November 1998;
‘The Ideal and the Real’ three-day Design History Society Annual Conference hosted
by the University of Brighton, September 1997;
‘Industry and Anti-Industry’ Design History annual conference, December 1990.
Other academic activities
 2011 – I have been commissioned to curate an exhibition entitled ‘Dźwięki
elektrycznego ciała. Eksperyment w sztuce i muzyce w Europie Wschodniej 19571984’ / ‘Sounding the Body Electric. Experiment in Music and Art in Eastern Europe
1957-1984 ’. It will be shown at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland, May 25th –
August 19th 2012 and is accompanied by a book with the same title;
 2011 – I was co-curator of ‘The Power of Fantasy: Modern and Contemporary Art
from Poland’, BOZAR Brussels (June- September 2011);
 2010 - I was the co-curator of ‘Roman Cieslewicz’, Gulbenkian Galleries, Royal
College of Art, July-Aug. This exhibition included c. 150 works, largely selected from
the National Museum in Poznan, Poland;
 2009 – consultant to the Estonian National Museum, providing advice about the
design and planning of their new museum building in Tartu which will open in 2014.
 2008-09 - I was the curator (with Jane Pavitt) of a major V&A exhibition, Cold War
Modern: Design 1945-1970, which was exhibited at the V&A in London before
traveling to MART in Rovereto, Italy, and the National Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania;
 2007 - on the jury of IDEA, International Graphic Design Competition, at the Guan
Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen, China;
 2006- Member of the editorial advisory board of Eye magazine;
 2005 - Academic referee / strand chair for papers submitted to DHS conference UEL,
September 2006
 2004- present, member of the AHRB Peer Review College;
 2004 – consultant on MDM, a documentary film being directed by Eric Bednarski
with the support of the Canadian Film Board;
 2003-present – member of the curatorial team for Modernism: Visions of Utopia
exhibition which will open at the V&A in 2006;
 2003-present Editorial Advisory Board member of Design History. The Journal of the
Design History Workshop Japan;
 2003 - ‘External’ reviewer of professorial promotion at the University of Ohio;
 2003 Juror on the judging panel of National Design Biennial, Kraków, Poland;
 2002- present Joint-series editor of books on ‘Objects and types’ published by
Reaktion Books;
 2001- Editorial board member of Blok, a year book on the cultural history of the
Eastern Bloc;
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
2000-2001 advisor / interviewee for a series of Radio Three broadcasts on modern
art in the Soviet Union;
 2000 Staffordshire University, School of Design - assessing its Research Assessment
Exercise submission;
 1999-2001 Academic advisor in the planning of a new Open University BA level 3
course, of Europe: Culture and Identities in a Contested Continent;
 1997 Editorial consultant to Fitzroy Dearborn's Encyclopedia of Interior Design;
 1997-2003 Curatorial consultant for various exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert
Museum, London: The Power of the Poster (1998); Art Nouveau (2000); Art Deco
(2003); new gallery of C20th design (2002-03);
 1996-2003 membership of the editorial board of the Journal of Design History (as
reviews editor);
 1993-present Reader / reviewer of articles and manuscripts for publication for Yale
University Press, Berg, Reaktion, Phaidon, Manchester University Press, Slavic
Review, Studies in the Decorative Arts, Journal of Design History, Home Cultures;
Architectural History; Journal of Cold War Studies; Journal of Political
Communication; Journal of Contemporary History; Urban Design; Cahiers du Monde
Russe.
I have reviewed funding applications to the University of Cambridge (post-doc appointment),
Wellcome Trust; Grantová agentura České republiky, School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
Europe-Asia Studies, Journal of Design History, etc
External examiner
 2009 University of Brighton, PhD thesis on design and policy in France, Britain and
China
 2007 University of Bologna, PhD thesis on the urban history of Warsaw
 2006 Leeds Metropolitan University, PhD thesis on theories of animation;
 2004 Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London – PHD on Photography in the
DDR;
 2004- National Film and Television School MA Courses;
 2004 London Institute – PHD on ROSPA graphic design;
 2001 St Andrews University - PHD on Romanian architecture c. 1880-1930;
 1998 Royal College of Art PHD on modernism, national identity and the Post Office
in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s (1998);
 1997-2001 Dun Laoghaire, Eire - BA courses in graphic design / interactive media.
June 2012
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