Anna Kallen Talley PhD AFHEA

Researcher of Modern and Contemporary Design History and Cultures

 

Anna Kallen Talley PhD AFHEA is a researcher specialising in modern and contemporary design history and cultures. Her primary research interests include graphic design and communications technologies, digital objects and infrastructures, the relationship between design and political theory, and the curation of design. Her primary research skills lie in qualitative methods, including digital and physical archival research (including the use of web archives), object-based analysis, content analysis, comparative case studies, interviews, and integrative literature reviews. She is currently a Postdoctoral researcher in the Institute for Design Informatics at the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, on the EKIP: European Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries Policy Platform project. Anna has an international research profile, spanning work in the US, UK and on an EU-wide Horizon Europe project.

 

She was awarded her Doctorate of Philosophy in Design for her thesis, Design and Information Disorder in the American Mediasphere: Communication Design Infrastructures, Objects and the Aestheticisation of Politics in April 2026. Her PhD was supported by a UKRI/AHRC grant through the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities. In 2021, Anna earned her MA in Design History and Material Culture (with distinction) from the V&A/Royal College of Art, and she holds a BFA in Art and Design History (summa cum laude) from the Pratt Institute. Anna is a Trustee of the Design History Society. Previously, she was a member of the False Webs Network (2023-5), a project funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and based at Edinburgh Napier University which sought to unite science communicators and misinformation researchers to discuss the connection between research and policy.

 

Anna has written on digital design, design curation and archiving, publishing in the Journal of Design History, the Journal of Curatorial Studies, and the RMIT Design Archives Journal. She has also contributed to policy papers for the Scottish Government on mis- and disinformation from the perspective of design studies and has presented papers and organised panels at a number of international conferences. These include conferences of the Design History Society, the Design Research Society, the American Studies Association, and the College Art Association. She has also served as a peer reviewer for Design Issues, the Journal of Design History, the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) biennial conference, and the Design History Society annual conference.

 

Reflecting her interest in design curation and public engagement, Anna has worked as a researcher in design museums, assisting with exhibitions, researching permanent collections, and archving and cataloguing. These include the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (Design & Digital), the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Architecture and Design), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Modern and Contemporary), the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and National Museums Scotland (Science & Technology).

 

At the University of Edinburgh, Anna has held undergraduate and postgraduate tutoring positions in the Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh Futures Institute, and the Institute for Design Informatics. She has delivered guest lectures at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Edinburgh Napier University, and on the V&A/RCA MA History of Design course at the Royal College of Art. Anna was awarded her Associate Fellowship with Advance HE in 2025.