Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
The undergraduate cohort for Level 5 BA Graphic Design could not see their practices reflected in the designers feted in most books and articles on the subject. The old modernist canon of white Western male superstar Graphic Designer has retained a dominance which is still insufficiently questioned. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2021, it was clear that change was necessary within the studio, and an existing module titled ‘Key Debates in Graphic Design’ was the place to begin. Broadening, decolonising and questioning the curriculum is a continuing process in which students and staff engage in ongoing research and relearn together. If the appropriate resources are not accessible, we must unearth and create them. The presentation will focus on a curriculum intervention that redefines content and enhances research skills and critical awareness. Developed over the past four years, what we present is a starting point for departure rather than a definite model. Growing out of seminar debates, presentations, analyses and readings, students are tasked with identifying creative individuals or collectives who have significantly contributed but are underrepresented within the field, either in terms of background, class, gender, ethnicity, or the concerns of their work. Having presented an argument for their choice in relation to the themes of the module, students engage Wikipedia – the only not-for-profit among the world’s ten most visited websites. As we will demonstrate, this user-led model enables students to create, modify and challenge content, positioning them as active participants in knowledge creation.
Kiff Bamford is Professor of Art and Philosophy at Leeds Beckett University where he supervises practice-based PhDs and teaches on the BA Graphic Design course. He has published widely on the work of French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard with a focus on the inter-relationship between art, performance and philosophy. Publications include Lyotard and the ‘figural’ in Performance, Art and Writing (2012), Jean-François Lyotard: Critical Lives (2017), Jean-François Lyotard: The Interviews and Debates (ed. 2020), Lyotard and Critical Practice (ed. with Margret Grebowicz, 2023), Lyotard’s Readings
Mary Ikoniadou is a Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design and Illustration at Leeds Beckett University. Her research on the relationship between image and text, visuality and politics during the Cold War focuses on illustrated periodicals as aesthetic, material, and political spaces of belonging in diaspora and tourism. She has published with Bloomsbury (2025), Journal of Periodical Studies (2025), University of Manchester Press (2022), Humanities (2020), and Routledge (2017), amongst others. She co-leads the PARTICIPATE research cluster and sits on the Editorial Board of the European Society of Periodicals.
Dr Liz Stirling is a Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design and has supervised a diverse range of practice-based PhDs in art and design. Her research and practice use an interdisciplinary, feminist, collagic approach to collaborative projects. Liz is an Art Doctor working on participatory and co-design projects on art, accessibility and wellbeing with libraries across West Yorkshire (2023-2024), Leeds social prescribers (2021-2022) and Leeds Art Gallery.
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Wednesday 19th November, 2025