Helen McCormack
Reader in Art and Design History
Design History & Theory
Research Interests
British Art and Design from the eighteenth century to the present day, Material Culture and Design Theory, History of decorative arts and interiors, Medical history, art and anatomy, the body, Aesthetics, Design Politics, Sustainability,
Research Profile
My research surveys the history and theory of art and design in Britain from the eighteenth century to the present day. While centred on historical themes, my approach to research and teaching encourages the application of theoretical perspectives from, for example, material culture, consumerism, anthropology, philosophy and aesthetics. My research interests explore the interconnected relationships between natural history, natural philosophy, and the fine arts and, in 2018, I published a monograph: William Hunter and his Eighteenth-Century Cultural Worlds: The Anatomist and the Fine Arts, Routledge/Taylor & Francis, an anthropological-cultural biography of the work of Dr William Hunter, founder of the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, and encompassing a thorough study of the closely-related discimore...
My research surveys the history and theory of art and design in Britain from the eighteenth century to the present day. While centred on historical themes, my approach to research and teaching encourages the application of theoretical perspectives from, for example, material culture, consumerism, anthropology, philosophy and aesthetics. My research interests explore the interconnected relationships between natural history, natural philosophy, and the fine arts and, in 2018, I published a monograph: William Hunter and his Eighteenth-Century Cultural Worlds: The Anatomist and the Fine Arts, Routledge/Taylor & Francis, an anthropological-cultural biography of the work of Dr William Hunter, founder of the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, and encompassing a thorough study of the closely-related disciplines of art and anatomy. My research is centred on the material traces and archival records of early collections of objects in the arts and sciences, previously contained within private ‘cabinets of curiosities’, from the Enlightenment era. Recent publications include studies of naturalists and artists, such: Thomas Pennant (1726-1798) and George Stubbs (1724-1806), (Anthem Press, 2017) and Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), (Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2020). Alongside these interests, I am currently working on an edited volume of essays on the subject of historical interiors, and their related exteriors, from contemporary perspectives; considering the ways in which architectural, decorative and landscaped schemes of the past are refashioned and remade for present-day audiences.
Qualifications
BA(Hons) History of Art, Birkbeck, University of London.
MA(RCA) History of Design, Royal College of Art/Victoria & Albert Museum
PhD (Glasgow) History of Art
PGCE in Learning and Teaching, University of the Arts, London
