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Ahmed Ansari
— student curated keynote speaker

In conversation with Tai Cossich and Sandra Bischler

Wednesday, September 1
6.30–7.50 pm (CEST/GMT +2)


Decolonisation, the History of Design, and the Design of History
Ahmed Ansari (New York University)

The DHS annual conferences are keen to support the engagement of early career researchers. This year the convenors asked the DHS Student Forum to curate a keynote lecture for the conference. They decided for Ahmed Ansari, who after his lecture will engage in a conversation with Tai Cossich (PhD student, DHS Student Officer) and Sandra Bischler (PhD Student, member of the Convenor Team).

The keynote lecture attempts to do four things: to map the current terrain of decolonial scholarship and practice in light of the uses of (design) history, recognize challenges and problems to decolonisation through theorizing historical interpretation as an impossible and incomplete project of reclamation, introduce several binaries that constitute questions that are and are not being asked in the decolonial turn around designing histories, and proposing four areas or sites of engagement that may constitute projects for design historians to work within moving forward.

Ahmed Ansari is an Assistant Professor in Integrated Design and Media at New York University. His research and writing sits at the intersection of design studies and critical cultural theory, with a focus on decolonising knowledge production in design ethnography, history, and theory.

Book via Eventbrite︎︎︎

This keynote lecture is free and open to everyone (those registered and those not registered for the DHS 2021 Annual Conference), but participants must book via Eventbrite in advance

Secure your place before Wednesday 25 August 12 midnight (CEST/GMT+2). You will receive a confirmation e-mail with the Zoom link to this event.





What is this about?      

This series of pre-conference events is an initiative of the Design History Society in conjunction with the DHS 2021 Annual Conference hosted virtually from Basel, Switzerland.

All activities are free and open to everyone (those registered and those not registered for the conference), but participants must book via Eventbrite in advance.


It all started with a Picnic... ︎︎︎
Organising committee      

Tai Cossich
Sandra Bischler

Oral histories of researching

Andrea Foffa

Dear penpal... meet and greet

Fleur Elkerton
Karen Fraser
Felicity Hall
Jennifer McHugh

Recording & Inventing

Anna Talley
Alex J Todd
Jennifer McHugh

With special thanks to...
Jenna Allsopp
Denise Lai
Artun Özgüner
Gael Welstead

Useful links      

Book via Eventbrite


DHS 2021 Annual Conference Memory Full?

Complete programme
Student-curated keynote speaker

Design History Society
Conference Bursary Application
Publishing Workshops


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