Dr Eleanor Herring is a Lecturer in the department of Design, History and Theory in the School of Design. Having originally trained in Textile Design, Eleanor holds an MA (Distinction) in the History of Design from the Royal College of Art/Victoria and Albert Museum and a PhD in Cultural Studies and Architectural History from the University of Edinburgh. Eleanor has worked in Higher Education since 2006, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate design history at a variety of institutions in the UK, as well as in Singapore, Germany and the Netherlands. Eleanor’s research centres around the design politics of the everyday, the designed environment and government-led design. Her book Street Furniture Design was published by Bloomsbury in 2016. She recently published ‘Designing a Level Playing Field’ about the Scottish Baby Box (Design and Culture 2025). Eleanor is currently developing several collaborative community projects about the uses and design of public space.
Urban design and the politics of space; street furniture; authorless and anonymous design; the everyday; design policy; government design; material culture; active travel, cycling and design for movement; design and social justice; design and motherhood.
2005-7 RCA/V&A History of Design Scholarship
2005 Hope Scott Trust Scholarship
2010-13 AHRC Doctoral Bursary
2010-18 GSA Research Development Fund (various)
2023 Design History Society Day Symposium Grant
Urban design; politics of space; street furniture; authorless and anonymous design; the everyday; design policy; British government design; material culture; active travel, cycling and design for movement; design and social justice; regeneration; design and motherhood.
Sinan Wang 'The Production and Appropriation of Neoliberal Urban Space: A Lefebvrian Study of Street, Design and Governance' (working title).
Yue Hu 'Designing for Behaviour Change: Using Visual Design to Encourage Desktop Computer Shutdown at The Glasgow School of Art'
Mandy McIntosh - 'Springburn Sculpture Park: The Re-socialisation of Orphaned Sculptures'.
Undergraduate teaching of Design History and Theory to BA (Hons) students at all year levels, including the Year 1 course 'Designed Objects: Ideas, Contexts, Histories'; the Y2 course 'Worlds and Words of Design'; the Y3 course 'Concepts & Territories of Design'; and Year 4 supervision. Joint course coordinator for Y2 DHT/Communication Design. Course coordinator for DHT Y3. Delivery of The Politics of Space (Y3). Postgraduate teaching of the cross-disciplinary elective course, Material Cultures in Creative Research. PhD supervision.
