Dr Claire I R O'Mahony

Profile details

Biography

Having joined the Department for Continuing Education in 2006, I set up the MSt in the History of Design Programme for which I am Course Director. I served as Director of Graduate Studies for the Department for Continuing Education (2013-16). I am also an Associate of the History Faculty. I was a Governing Body Fellow of Kellogg College (2006-19) where I served as Admissions Tutor (2011-3).

Whilst researching my doctorate under the supervision of Professor John House at the Courtauld Institute, Municipality and the Mural: Townhall Decoration in Third Republic France, I began my teaching career at the Courtauld, Birkbeck College, Reading and Thames Valley. My other roles have included of Director of History of Art Lifelong Learning at the University of Bristol (2002-7), Curator for 'Brunel and the Art of Invention' exhibition Bristol City Art Gallery (Brunel 200 project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund) 2006, Education Officer for Community and Secondary School groups at the Courtauld Gallery and Exhibition researcher at the Richard Green Galleries London, founding Assistant Editor of Art on the Line, member of the Centre for the Study of Visual and Literary Cultures in France, University of Bristol (2002-7).

My service as Chair of the Design History Society commenced in January 2020; I am therefore also Honorary Officer and Trustee of the Charity and an Editor of the Journal of Design History. I previously served as Research Grant Coordinator (2004-2008) for the DHS.

Teaching

Postgraduate

My teaching addresses the history of art and design (1848-1968). I am Course Director of the Master of Studies programme in the History of Design, taught part-time over two years. This vodcast 'Design not Words: Five Suffragette Objects' gives a glimpse of the research into the material cultures of the Suffragette cause undertaken by MSt in the History of Design students since 2011. Over 60 MSt dissertations have been successfully completed by my supervisees.

Doctoral Supervision

At present I am helping to supervise a doctoral project in looking at nineteenth-century building materials (Lily Crowther with lead supervisors Professor William Whyte in the History Faculty and Simona Valeriani at the V & A). My supervisee Emma Anderson completed her DPhil in Architectural History on turn-of-the century luxury hotels in London in 2020. I welcome proposals from prospective doctoral candidates seeking to research visual and material cultures and design produced in Europe between 1870 and 1968.

Research interests

My research centres on the history of decoration in Europe particularly between 1870 and 1968; Third and Fourth Republic France are my primary focus. The relationships between design writing, materiality and the communication of private and public identity led me to a particular interest in the dialogue between Republican politics, aesthetic writing, decorative objects and interiors. Civic mural painting projects, glass, furniture, jewellery, tapestry, exhibition and theatre scenography have been the core case studies of my research. These sites and objects capture my engagement with debates about regional identity and leftist politics with particular acuity. The ways in which 'decoration' has been formulated as a gendered practice and ideological construct informs my investigations into the moral and pragmatic dilemmas between industrial processes and handicraft. 

Select Publications

Forthcoming:

  • 'Representations of Crafts' in Cultural History of Craft in the Modern Age (1920‒present). edited by Professor Emeritus Clive Edwards (contracted with Bloomsbury for 2022/3)
  • 'Forging foam at the 1925 Paris Exhibition' chapter in collected volume The Senses and Interior Design edited by Professor John Potvin (in peer review Manchester for 2022/3).
  • 'Introduction' and 'Chapter 7 Exhibitions and Display' in A Cultural History of Furniture (six-volume series) editor of modern period volume (Bloomsbury, 2021); co authors: Professor Anja Baumhoff (Hannover); Dr Antony Buxton; Dr Helena Chance (Buckingham); Professor Emeritus Clive Edwards; Professor Marjan Groot (Amsterdam); Professor Trevor Keeble (Portsmouth); Professor Penny Sparke (Kingston); Professor Emeritus Gregory Votolato.

 Books, Chapters and Articles:

Public Engagement

Chair of the Design History Society (elected at 2019 AGM)

Histories of Design for Disability (Oxford Online Reading List): ORLO

An open-access digital teaching and learning resource I created for 2019 Disability History Month.

Recent Conference papers and Public lectures

  • 'In conversation with Dr Christine Chescinska' and 'Remembering Things' For Art History Festival of the Arts at the National Galllery London 20-25 Sept 2021

  • 'Decoration’s Objects: Building a borderland microcosm amidst the 1925 Exposition' for Building-Object/Design-Architecture: Exploring Interconnections Conference 6 - 8th June 2019 Design History Society, the European Architectural History Network, and the Architecture, Space and Society Centre (Birkbeck).

  • ‘Furnishing Modern Cultural Histories’ Modern Interiors Research Centre Kinston University 30 January 2019

Awards

Grant Funding

  • Pasold Fund Research Activity Grant in support of research into tapestry design for public buildings and ocean liners in Le Havre, Aubusson and Paris (2017).

  • Women in the Humanities Research Grant in support research trip to France exploring women's role in the modern tapestry revival (2015).

  • John Fell Fund grant in support of 'Design for War and Peace' 2014 Design History Society Conference and ensuing publication (2014).

  • Design History Society Research Conference Grants to support 'Revisiting the Rite' conference 2013 and Mid-Century Modernism conference 2012 both held at Kellogg College.  

 

 

See above