Anna Kallen Talley PhD AFHEA

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art

anna.talley@ed.ac.uk

ORCID: 0000-0002-9404-6514

 

 

 

Education

 

2021-2026

PhD, Design, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, UK

Thesis: Design and Information Disorder in the American Mediasphere: Communication Design Infrastructures, Objects and the Aestheticisation of Politics 
Fully funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (AHRC/UKRI)
Supervisors: Prof Craig Martin, Prof Oliver Escobar & Dr Dominic Hinde

Affiliate, Institute for Design Informatics, Edinburgh College of Art/School of Informatics

Affiliate, Edinburgh Futures Institute

 

2021

MA History of Design (Distinction), V&A/Royal College of Art, UK

Dissertation: How Google Uses Design for Profit & Power Neocolonialism & Google’s Material Design Guidelines

 

 

2019

BFA History of Art and Design (Summa cum Laude), Pratt Institute, USA

Dissertation: Can Good Posters Make Good Neighbors? Mildred Constantine’s 1941 Latin America in Posters Exhibition

 

 

 

 

 

Research Experience

 

2026

         Postdoctoral researcher, EKIP: European Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries Policy Platform, Institute for Design Informatics, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh 

  • Designing and undertaking research into creative and cultural industries policy areas, working closely with European EKIP project partners from academia and industry
  • Formal reporting, including a Policies Impact Report
  • Contribution to workshops and events that form the wider EKIP programme

 

2026

Transport Archive Volunteer, Science & Technology Department, National Museums Scotland, UK. Supervisor: Dr Meredith Greiling, Principal Curator, Technology

  • Reviewing archival files of Transport collections supplementary information and correspondence
  • Sorting and rationalising the remaining supplementary information for object records and cataloguing
  • Updating the object’s digital collections management system (Axiell) record as appropriate

 

 

2021-2026

         Doctoral Research, Design, University of Edinburgh 

  • Investigated the relationship between communication design (understood as objects and systems) and the production, distribution and mediation of American political news in mediaspheres characterised by information disorder through the lens of contemporary design history and new materialism
  • Addressed research gaps in studies of information disorder; design histories of information, news and communication; and design ethics. Contributed to these fields and scholarship on visual rhetoric; political aesthetics; studies of non-professional, vernacular and transgressive design; design and polycrisis; and digital design
  • Interdisciplinary, integrative literature review focusing on communication design history and theory; digital media and journalism; political theory/philosophy; and design ethics
  • Developed skills in qualitative data analysis including multimodal analysis, coding (using NVivo software), case study selection, interviews and research into born-digital and digitised material
  • Developed a theoretical framing of the visual language of sensationalism and information disorder that situates design within the sphere of political aesthetics and the political economy of digital information networks
  • Research dissemination and impact: 
    • Podcast episode in the first season of the Edinburgh College of Art Podcast representing the School of Design: Edinburgh College of Art (2024) ‘5. Anna Talley: Disinformation is Designed’. (Artful Inquiry). Available at: https://open.spotify.com/show/6t76hc4olqauDVQlJGFyIn?si=uCmqTxBHRHS8MbbuwUv3Mg.
    • Seminar presentations
      • “This is Not Breaking News: A Short History of the Design of Information Disorder”, Royal Society of Edinburgh & Edinburgh Napier University: False Webs Seminar, September 2024.
      • “Old News, New Methods: Addressing Digital Material Culture through 19thCentury Sensationalist Papers and 21st Century Fake News Websites.” Material Culture Caucus, American Studies Association Conference, November 2022.
    • Book chapter: ‘From Swiss Modernism to the International Compliant Style: Grids and Graphic Design in the Age of Information Disorder’ in Perspectives on Design III Research, Education and Practice. (Springer, 2023). 
    • Policy paper written in collaboration with members of the Edinburgh Napier University-based False Webs Network with recommendations for combatting information disorder submitted to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre in 2025

 

2023

PhD Placement, Design and Digital Section, Department of Art, Architecture, Photography and Design, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK. Supervisor: Corinna Gardner, Senior Curator, Design and Digital. 

  • Three-month, full-time project exploring with two aims. First, exploring how the ‘digitality’ of the V&A’s collection has changed since the museum began collecting digital art in the mid-century by looking at a selection of objects from the Digital Art and Design Collection in the Art, Architecture, Photography and Design (AAPD) department. Second, evaluating the museum’s workflows, Collections Management System (CMS), and Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) for their suitability for the acquisition, storage and retrieval of digital objects
  • Reviewed object records, acquisition workflows and conducted interviews with staff in AAPD, Conservation and Collections Management, and held an inter-departmental workshop
  • Established a history of the collecting practices and interpretation of digital objects in the museum
  • Outputs included: a new acquisitions questionnaire for digital objects as part of the V&A’s broader initiative to design a robust collecting and conservation strategy for digital material; a 10,000-word report on the project including research design, theoretical framings and findings; blog posts on the V&A website; a cross-departmental workshop on digital collecting; presentation at the Born Digital Cultural Heritage Conference, Australian Centre for the Moving Image: “Radical Uncertainties: Collecting Digital Objects at the V&A, Histories and New Acquisitions” (November 2023), presented with Corinna Gardner

2020-21

Curatorial Volunteer, Design, Architecture and Digital Department, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK. Supervisors: Livia Turnbull and Maude Willaerts.

  • Research and writing reports for upcoming acquisitions and label fact checking in advance of the reinstallation of the museum’s modern and contemporary galleries 

 

Co-Founder, Design in Quarantine: A Digital Archive of Pandemic Design

 

 

2019

Research Fellow, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, USA. Supervisors: Dr. Emily Orr, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary American Design & Caitlin Condell, Associate Curator and Head of Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design.

  • Provided archival research support on permanent collection objects for the exhibition “Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer”
  • Acknowledgement in Condell, Caitlin, and Emily Orr, eds., E. McKnight Kauffer: The Artist in Advertising (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc, 2020), p. 275.

 

2019 

Curatorial Intern, Architecture and Design Department, Museum of Modern Art, USA. Supervisors: Andrew Gardner, Curatorial Assistant & Juliet Kinchin, Senior Curator. 

  • Research revolved around printed material from the early twentieth century, acquisitions, and archival research for the special exhibition “Automania” 

2018

Curatorial Intern, Modern and Contemporary, Decorative Arts and Design, Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA. Supervisor: Christian Larsen, Curator of Design and Decorative Arts.

  • Permanent collection research included writing labels for the twentieth century design collection and provenance research for a large gift of early twentieth century pieces under consideration for acquisition
  • Writing acquisitions forms for contemporary and twentieth century design 
  • Special projects included research for an exhibition on sustainability and archival research for The Met’s 150th Anniversary exhibition 

 

 

 

 

List of Journal Articles, Book Chapters, Policy Papers and Research Reports

 

In Preparation

‘Data-Driven Objects in a Technoscape of Polycrisis: Addressing Extractive Logic Models of Digital Design through Contemporary Design History’ (originally presented as a panel paper for Is this It? Alternative histories of design and the design professions’, University of Applied Arts, Vienna)

 

Doing Contemporary Design History in an Age of Polycrisis: Technology, Politics and Objects in the Twenty-First Century (book proposal for Bloomsbury Academic)

 

 

Accepted for Publication, forthcoming

‘Latin America in Posters (1941): Propaganda and the Limits of Curatorial Intent’, Journal of Curatorial Studies, (accepted for publication, forthcoming 2026).

 

 

Published

 

‘Digital Design: A History, Stephen Eskilson, Princeton University Press, 2023, pp. 296. cloth: £42.00. ISBN: 9780691181394’, Journal of Design         History, 2026, 10.1093/jdh/epag009

 

‘Digital Design History: State of the Field, Definitions and Possibilities’, Journal of Design History, 2026, epag001, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epag001

 

 ‘Sensational design: Layout and display typography in the visual rhetoric of information disorder’, Visible Language, 59(3), 348–378. https://doi.org/10.34314/pb285m50

 

‘History of Information Disorder: Production, Distribution, and Form’, in: Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) FalseWebs Research Network (ed) FalseWebs Network Policy Paper: Understanding and Addressing Misinformation in Scotland, 2025, pp. 21–24. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/nw73u_v1

 

‘From ASCII Art to Comic Sans: Typography and Popular Culture in the Digital Age’, Journal of Design History, 2024, epad059, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epad059

 

‘Copper’, in: Cormier, B. (ed) Pandemic Objects. (London: Architectural Association, 2024).

 

‘Radical Uncertainties: Collecting Digital Objects at the V&A’, Internal V&A Research Report, 2023. 

 

‘From Swiss Modernism to the International Compliant Style: Grids and Graphic Design in the Age of Information Disorder’ in Perspectives on Design III Research, Education and Practice. (Springer, 2023). 

 

‘Design in Quarantine: Creating a Digital Archive of Design Responses to Covid-19.’ RMIT Design Archives Journal, 11.2, 2021.

 


 

 

List of Conference and Seminar Presentations

 

2024

“This is Not Breaking News: A Short History of the Design of Information Disorder”, Royal Society of Edinburgh & Edinburgh Napier University: False Webs Seminar, September 2024.

 

“REF 2021 Open Access Portfolio Project at the University of Edinburgh” Capturing Creativity Week, Loughborough University and Bath Spa University, September 2024.

 

“Practice Meets Research: Developing a Training Workshop to Support Use of Web Archives in Arts & Humanities Research.” International Internet Preservation Consortium Web Archiving Conference, April 2024

. 

Panel Co-Chair, “Polycrisis and Design: Ethics, Intervention, Possibility.” Design Studies Forum-Sponsored Session, College Art Association Conference, February 2024.

 

2023

“Radical Uncertainties: Collecting Digital Objects at the V&A, Histories and New Acquisitions.” Born Digital Cultural Heritage Conference, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, November 2023.

 

“Unpacking Mildred Constantine’s 1941 Latin America in Posters Exhibition: State Propaganda and the Limits of Curatorial Intent.” Design History Society Annual Conference: Displaying Design: History, Criticism and Curatorial Discourses, September 2023.

2022

“Old News, New Methods: Addressing Digital Material Culture through 19th Century Sensationalist Papers and 21st Century Fake News Websites.” Material Culture Caucus, American Studies Association Conference, November 2022.

 

“Rethinking Research Methods for Digital Material Culture.” Design History Society Conference: Design & Transience, September 2022.

 

2021

“A Disorderly Archive.” Design History Society Conference: Memory Full, September 2021.

“Design in Quarantine: Past, Present and Post-COVID Futures.” Pandemic Perspectives, April 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVUJPzFm6K4

 

“A Disorderly Archive.” Coalition of Masters Scholars of Material Culture ‘Pandemic Perspectives’, April 2021, https://youtu.be/B2A_-wPjVLA

 

2020

“Design in Quarantine.” Design History Society Student Forum, October 2020, https://youtu.be/gbPjF0vSr8g

 

 

 

 

Invited Speaker & Guest Lectures

 

2026

‘Is this It? Alternative histories of design and the design professions’, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, https://www.dieangewandte.at/en/news/detail?artikel_id=1773805344982

‘Policy Pulse Series: Disinformation’, Global Health Policy Unit, School of Political and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh

 

2025

‘Navigating Radical Uncertainties: The History of Digital Collections in the V&A and an Evaluation of Acquisition Workflows’ MSc Cultural Heritage Futures, Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh

 

‘Design, Information Disorder, and Information Designers’, School of Arts and Creative Industries, Edinburgh Napier University 

 

2024

‘Immaterial Design Histories’, MA History of Design and Material Culture, V&A/Royal College of Art

 

 

 

 

Teaching Experience

Associate Fellow, Advance HE (awarded 2025) 

 

2026

Postgraduate Teaching Assistant, Ethical Data Futures, Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh

  • Hybrid classroom facilitation (total support of ten hours of lectures)
  • Monitoring of asynchronous online participation of 45 students 

 

 

2025

Undergraduate Tutor, Ethics and Politics of Data, Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh

  • Two contacts hours a week
  • Assessment responsibilities: written feedback on a formative written assessment (750 words) and a summative 1,500 word case-study essay 

 

2025

Undergraduate Tutor, Currents: Addressing Global Challenges, Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh

  • Two contacts hours a week
  • Assessment responsibilities: written feedback on a formative written assessment (300-500 words) and a final project consisting of a 500-1,000 word essay accompanying a multimodal project

 

2024-5

Undergraduate Tutor, Creating Edinburgh: The Interdisciplinary City, Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh

  • Developed and delivered tutorials incorporating a variety of in-class activities to explore course content, including Socratic seminars, small group discussion, class debates and reflective writing
  • Two contacts hours a week
  • Assessment responsibilities: mid-term feedback on three presentations, two final projects and fourteen 1,000-word reflective essays

2025

Co-Organiser, Interdisciplinary Multimodal Analysis Workshop

  • Initiated and co-developed, alongside with fellow PhD students at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, a half- day session that introduced multimodal analysis to doctoral researchers in the humanities
  • Co-wrote a successful grant application for the workshop: funded by a Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Cohort Development Grant (£2,500)
  • Programme included an introduction to concepts in multimodal analysis, a group analysis activity, and a lecture on multimodal analysis as applied to an ongoing PhD project
  • Outputs included a blog post on the SGSAH website about the event: https://www.sgsah.ac.uk/current/funding/cdf/prevawards/headline_1202392_en.html

 

2024-5

Undergraduate Tutor, Students as Change Agents, Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh

  • Supervised a group of five undergraduate students working on a challenge project presented by Public Health Scotland/Police Scotland on reducing the attainment gap
  • One contact hour a week

2024

Postgraduate Tutor, Histories and Futures: Data Cities, MA Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh

  • Supervised four tutorial groups of four Masters students each on a studio project exploring intelligent computation in urban infrastructure
  • Developed a lecture on critical approaches to reflexivity in design practice and created a comprehensive suite of materials including bespoke diagrams explaining analytical frameworks, videos and bibliographic guides
  • Students exhibited their final projects at a demonstration day at the Scottish National Robotarium
  • Three contacts hours a week
  • Assessment responsibilities: four studio projects and fifteen, 1,000-word reflective essays

 

2023-24

Co-Organiser, Ghosts in the Machine: Web Archives for Humanities Researchers Workshop

  • Initiated and co-developed, alongside web and digital archivists at the University of Edinburgh, a full- day programme that introduced web archives and how to use them in humanities research
  • Co-wrote a successful grant application for the workshop: funded by a Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Global Connects Grant (£2,500)
  • Programme included an introduction to research methods for web archives, a selection of speakers who provided a review of projects that centre web archives as their research material, an introduction to computational methods for web archive research, and overview of issues concerning copyright and ethics in web archive research
  • Dissemination included a paper presentation at the International Internet Preservation Consortium 2024 Web Archiving Conference, which focused on the benefits of collaboration between web archivists and researchers: “Practice Meets Research: Developing a Training Workshop to Support Use of Web Archives in Arts & Humanities Research.” International Internet Preservation Consortium Web Archiving Conference, April 2024. 

2023
Undergraduate Tutor, Narratives in Design and Screen Cultures, School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh 

  • Facilitated two seminars of about eleven students following course lectures
  • Two contact hours per week on average
  • Assessment responsibilities: feedback on mid-term drafts and marking thirty 1,000-word final essays 

 

2022-23
Undergraduate Tutor, Design and Screen Cultures Dissertation Supervisor, School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh

  • Supervised to completion high-marking final-year dissertations of ten undergraduate design students in the Edinburgh College of Art
  • Developed a mid-term feedback lecture tailored to feedback on students’ drafts
  • One to two contact hours per week on average
  • Assessment responsibilities: feedback on mid-term drafts and twenty-page final dissertations 

 

 

 

 

Administrative Experience

 

2021-Present

Director of Communications, Design Research Society

  • Responsible for maintaining the website, posting news items, communicating via social media, email marketing and newsletter compilation/editing, and online systems administration
  • Lead on online community and stakeholder management
  • Co-led a large, ongoing digitisation project which involved digitising archival documents and creating metadata for the DRS’ archives.
  • Leading on communications and volunteer organisation for DRS2026, the Society’s biennial conference, including newsletters, social media posts, and co-managing delegate registrations

2023-4
Open Access Portfolio Facilitator, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Research Office. Supervisor: Veronica Cano, Scholarly Communications Officer

  • Communicated with faculty and external copyright owners to secure copyright permissions to make portfolios submitted by practice-based researchers to REF2021 open access
  • Updated excel spreadsheets with information concerning copyright holders and communicated regularly with my line manager in the Research Office and the University’s copyright expert
  • Led the coordination of a half-day training event for ECA staff and postgraduate students on copyright and open research.
  • Dissemination included a conference presentation with team members: “REF 2021 Open Access Portfolio Project at the University of Edinburgh” Capturing Creativity Week, Loughborough University and Bath Spa University, September 2024.

2020-1

Social Media Editor, Design and Culture, Journal of the Design Studies Forum

  • First social media editor for Design and Culture
  • Created the Journal’s first social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn) and ensured timely communication of new articles and issues

 

 

 

 

Grants and Awards 

 

2024

         Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Cohort Development Grant (£2,500)

 

2023

Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Internship Grant (£2,225)

Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Global Connects Workshop Grant (£2,500)

Postgraduate Researcher Expenses Grant, University of Edinburgh (£500)

 

2022

UKRI/AHRC/Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Doctoral Training Partnership, University of Edinburgh (approx. £110,500)

Postgraduate Researcher Expenses Grant, University of Edinburgh (£500)

 

2020

Clive Wainwright Memorial Prize, V&A/Royal College of Art MA History of Design (£185)

Virtual Design History Student Award, Design History Society (£150.00)

 

2019

Excellence in Academic Achievement, History of Art and Design, Pratt Institute, US

 

 

 

 

List of Peer Reviews

 

Journals

         Journal of Design History (OUP)

         Design Issues (MIT)

 

 

Conferences

2026 Design Research Society Conference

2024, 2025 Design History Society Annual Conference

2023 International Association of Societies of Design Research (Track: Changing Heritage)

 

 

 

 

Professional Societies & Networks

 

2023-Present

Trustee, Digital Secretary, Design History Society

  • Oversee the development and implementation of the Society’s website to grow, maintain and support membership in close collaboration with the Administrator, Chair and Communications Officer 
  • Co-created a new membership portal on the DHS website that allows members to create searchable profiles
  • Co-developed the Society’s first membership survey and conducted data analysis to determine future directions for membership development
  • Consulted with the Grants Officer to create a new ‘Decolonising Design History’ grant and an ED&I statement accompanying all calls for applications 
  • Review applicants and participate in interview panels for incoming Trustee appointments 

 

2025-Present

Member, British Academy Early Career Researcher Network

  • Member of the Scotland cluster

 

2024- 2026

Member, European Communication Research and Education Association

  • Member, Digital Culture and Communication Section
  • Member, Visual Cultures Section

 

2024- 2025

Member, False Webs Network, Edinburgh Napier University

  • The network seeks to unite science communications and misinformation researchers to discuss the connection between research and policy
  • Funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh
  • Presentations: “This is Not Breaking News: A Short History of the Design of Information Disorder”, Royal Society of Edinburgh & Edinburgh Napier University: False Webs Seminar, September 2024
  • Outputs: policy paper written in collaboration with members with recommendations for combatting information disorder for the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (2025)

 

 

 

List of Non-Academic Publications (Web and Magazines)

 

2023

 ‘How to collect digital objects’, V&A Blog, 3 August. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/digital/how-to-collect-digital-objects 

 

 ‘A history of collecting digital objects at the V&A’ V&A, Victoria and Albert Museum. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/a-history-of-collecting-digital-objects-at-the-va 

 

2020-22

            Contributor and Guest Editor, the New York Review of Architecture (contact for full list of publications).

 

2020

“Pandemic Design: What Tuberculosis Posters Can Teach Us About Community.” Design Observer, May 2020. https://designobserver.com/feature/pandemic-design-what-tuberculosis-posters-can-teach-us-about-community/40231/.

2019

“Merging Communist Values + Commercial Need, Cyan is the Most Fascinating East Berlin Studio You’ve Never Heard of” AIGA Eye on Design, June 2019. https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/discovering-cyan-designing-between-tradition-and-innovation-communism-and-capitalism/

 

“La Lutte Continue.” Design Observer, May 2019. https://www.designobserver.com/feature/la-lutte-continue/40067/

 

2018-9

            Editorial Intern and Contributing Writer, MODERN Magazine and The Magazine ANTIQUES (contact for full list of publications).

 

 

 

 

Software and IT Skills

 

Museum Collections Management Systems

  • TMS/CMS (beginner)
  • Axiell Collections (intermediate)

 

Collaboration and Video Conferencing Platforms

  • Microsoft Teams & One Drive (advanced)
  • Google Workspace (intermediate)
  • Zoom (intermediate)

 

Programming Languages and Software

  • Python (beginner)
  • HTML/CSS (intermediate)
  • Git (intermediate)
  • Markdown (advanced)

 

Writing, Notes Management and Research Software

  • Obsidian (advanced)
  • Microsoft Word (advanced)
  • Overleaf/LaTeX (beginner)
  • NVivo (intermediate)
  • Zotero (advanced)
  • ConfTool (intermediate)

 

Teaching Platforms

  • Blackboard Learn (intermediate)