DHS Sessions; Hidden Histories: Gender in Design

4 May 2022

Taking place each Thursday throughout April and May, the Design History Society are hosting a number of zoom seminars discussing ‘Hidden Histories: Gender in Design’. All sessions are free to attend, register your place here. 

‘Hidden Histories: Gender in Design’ aims to highlight “hidden or previously ignored figures and design projects, and seeks to highlight the role of gender and collaborative process behind much design history of the last century and into the future”.

Mostly taking place between 19.30-21:00, the upcoming sessions include:

Thursday 5th May, Hidden Histories: Gender in Dress and Graphic Design
– Anna Dempsey
Angel DeCora: Native American Modern Designer and “Forgotten” Histories
– Jaleen Grove
Olive Allen and Graphic Nonchalance in Edwardian Girls’ Media
– Teal Triggs
Fleur Cowles: Flair By Design (1949-1951)
-Elizabeth Tregenza
A Designer and Her Handwriting: Olive O’Neill 1902-1989
– Madeline Porsella
Electric Lady Liberty: Self-fashioning Through Fancy-Dress

Thursday 12th May; Gender in Design: Hidden Histories of Collaboration and Collective Practice
– Rujana Rebernjak
Designers from the margins: women’s organisations as agents of design production in 1950s Yugoslavia
– Catherine Townsend
Friends and lovers, careers in exile: the fate of German-Jewish women architects, a study of Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt) and Erika Rathgeber.
– Mirjam Deckers
Gunta Stölzl and the paradoxical power of the collective name
– Laura Martinez de Guerenu
Silenced Contributions: Lilly Reich in Barcelona
– Alexandra Chiriac
Gender Trouble: a Hidden History of Modern Design in Romania: M. H. Maxy and Mela Brun-Maxy

Thursday 19th May; (This sessions will start at 20.00 BST to accommodate global participation)
Gender in Design: Hidden Histories of Design Amidst the Cold War
– Francesco E Guida
Women Pioneers in the Golden Age of Italian Graphic Design
– Bettina Siegele
Overcoming the Obstacle of “The Architect”: Karola Bloch
– Alyona Sokolnikova
Missing Profile: a Study of the Professional Role of Women in 1960-80s Soviet Design
– Isabel Duarte

A Feminist Revision of Portuguese Graphic Design History: Fátima Rolo Duarte

– Sarah Teasley
Gendered design experiences in Tokyo, 1975-85

Thursday 26th May, Gender in Design: Pedagogic Histories and Practices
Part 1: Histories
– Alexandra Kocsis
The Class of 1911: the Beginnings of Coeducation in the Royal School of Arts and Crafts, Budapest
​- Benoît Vandevoort
Interior Design: an Excellent Domain for ‘Les Religieuses’
– Barbara Jaffee
The Forgotten Futurism of Helen Gardner’s “Art Through the Ages”
– Dina Benbrahim, Lisa Maione, and Bree McMahon
A Contested Classroom: a Pedagogy of Resistance Against Colonial Discourses

Part 2; Contemporary Practices
– Jen Pepper
Is Design Education Failing Women Designers?
– Sofia Fernandez
Gender Studies in University Design Programmes in Germany
– Deepika Srivastava
Evaluating the Role of Gender in Influencing the Operations of a Woman-led Contemporary Architectural Studio in India: Shimul Jhaveri Kadri
– Yarden Levy
Designing Designers: Educating Fashion Designers Through Gendered Ideals