Katie Irani

“Discontinuous interruptions”: bodiliness and pluralities in histories of the Indian Army, 1914-1918

I am a UK-based design historian, mixed media artist and Associate Lecturer in Cultural & Historical Studies at London College of Fashion. I successfully defended my LAHP-funded PhD at the Royal College of Art in 2023. My research is heavily informed by decolonial theory and develops new critical lenses with which to research and write material culture and design histories. I am a research member of ‘OPEN’, an initiative started at the RCA that explores decolonial praxis in art, design and curation. I have co-organised events and co-presented at international conferences as part of OPEN; as a collective OPEN’s work has been published by Oxford University Press. I also act as Administrator of the AHRC-funded Frozen Futures research project, and have previously worked as Visiting Lecturer on the V&A / RCA History of Design Programme. 

My supervisors are Sarah Cheang and Shehnaz Suterwalla, RCA.

Selected publications and exhibitions

Cheang, S., Irani, K., Rezende, K. and Suterwalla, S., ‘In between breaths: memories, stories, and otherwise design histories’, Journal of Design History, March 2023 

In Conversation, Gallery 76 (Sydney, Australia) and Louis Joel Gallery (Melbourne, Australia), May-late 2023 

Semiotics of Sewing (Colectivo Malvestidas), MODUS: hosts exhibition, London (October to January 2023) 

Tiny Gallery, OPEN, Ransomes Docks, London (April 2022 – July 2022) 

Co-Designer and Co-Curator, OPEN debut exhibition ‘Emotional Practices’ (2019)