Dr Kasia Jezowska

I am a historian, and at the centre of my research is the design history of Eastern Europe. In particular, I am interested in the political role of design in the 20th and 21st centuries as part of projects of international diplomacy. In 2019 I joined the University of New South Wales in Sydney as a Lecturer (US. Assistant Professor) in Design History and Theory, where, together with Livia Lazzaro Rezende, I have been responsible for a comprehensive programme in the history and theory of design. Before this, I worked as an Associate Lecturer at the University of the Arts, the University of Hertfordshire, and as a Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London.

My current book project, tentatively titled Socialist by design. Statecraft, industry, and the national style in Cold War Poland, argues that industrial exhibitions and trade fairs were powerful tools that the state employed to present itself vis-a-vis other countries as a socialist yet distinctly unique country. It expands on my doctoral project (University of Oxford, 2019), which examined the role of design, craft and architecture in imagining ‘modern Poland’ in the three post-war decades.

My scholarly interest in design diplomacy has developed in parallel to my curatorial practice. Over the last fifteen years I collaborated on exhibition projects and public programming with design industry partners, governmental bodies and cultural institutions. I developed thematic exhibitions and temporary displays for the London Design Festival, Milan Design Week, Istanbul Design Week and Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 2018 I curated Back to Front: Polish Exhibitions on Show, a thematic exhibition for the Triennale Design Museum in Milan which recontextualised historical material to make it relevant for the contemporary audiences.

My new project Coal Nations and Carbon Cultures continues this investigation into the political potential of industrial exhibitions, placing coal at the forefront of this inquiry. By examining the complex relationship between natural resources, industrial products and national identity, the project seeks to explain both Poland’s and Australia’s longstanding reliance on this increasingly problematic material resource.