DHS Ambassador call and thank you to outgoing Ambassador Wiktoria Kijowska

Society News

2 October 2023

In September we sadly said farewell to one of our Ambassadors, Wiktoria Kijowska after almost two years in post. Wiktoria is a design historian and a designer. She graduated from the V&A/ RCA History of Design course as well as from NTU’s Furniture and Product Design course. Her work primarily focuses on Polish design history which she wants to popularise to English-speaking audiences. She aims to make design history more accessible to non-academic audiences and relevant to contemporary design and lives.

Along with Alexandra Banister, Wiktoria founded the Provocative Objects/Places blog series for the DHS website which has attracted several posts from guest authors,. Both Wiktoria and Alexandra have catapulted the Society into 2023 with a much livelier, smarter and engaging social media presence. Wiktoria co-convened the ‘Folk Objects in Everyday Life’ seminar series with former DHS Chair Claire O’Mahony and has generally flown the DHS flag since November 2021.

Of her time as an Ambassador, Wiktoria says:

"I was a DHS Ambassador during most of my masters studies and this opportunity was invaluable (and very fun). I came up with a virtual event, organise it from start to finish, designed promotional materials and co-convened the sessions with the (then) Chair of the society. In addition to this, I had the opportunity to write numerous blog posts for the ‘Provocative Objects/ Places’ series. The DHS provided me with a platform where I could share my academic research with an international audience. Most importantly, during my time as an Ambassador I have met so many great, passionate and friendly people within the society, but also others from around the world interested in the field of design history. It was one of the best things I have done during my studies as it really pushed me out of my comfort zone, developed my knowledge of the design history field and introduced me to academics, designers and researchers from around the globe with whom I still keep in touch."

We thank Wiktoria for all her hard work and generous volunteering over the last two years and wish her well in her future career and endeavours.

We are now recruiting two new DHS Ambassadors to continue to good work started by Wiktoria and which continues with Alexandra. Please visit our vacancies page for a full role descriptor: https://www.designhistorysocie...