Dr Jo Gooding, FHEA (RCA/V&A) is a researcher and historian who studied Design History at the Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert museum. Her thesis explored the design of National Health Service spectacles and from this she developed an interest in the complexities of design in relation to medical appliances. Her career has involved working in the museum sector and teaching historical and contextual studies to design students at a variety of institutions. Jo’s doctoral research explored the development of the discipline of Design History and the networks and connections between academics, designers, collectors, antiques dealers, and the museums sector. She was awarded an AHRC Cultural Engagement post-doctoral project to assist a local authority museum in Middlesbrough with the acquisition of a decorative arts collection. Most recently, Jo was a lecturer in Design History at Northumbria University and Visiting Lecturer in the School of Design Science and Engineering at Teesside University.
Currently, Jo is an LDoc CEE Post-Doctoral Research Fellow based at Kingston School of Art where she is working collaboratively with Kingston University colleagues in the Faculty of Health and Social Care based at St Georges Hospital and with the Hands of X team in Dundee (Dr Graham Pullin, University of Dundee’s Reader in Disability-led Design and Dr Andrew Cook, Designer). She is very interested in exploring how we can examine past histories to inform and evidence future directions. Jo has recently been invited to contribute to the University of Warwick’s Cultural Histories of National Health Care Conference which celebrates the legacy of the NHS in its 70th anniversary year. In addition, she is also working on publications from her research on NHS glasses to explore their role in constructing identity and explore how a once-hated medical appliance has become a cult fashion item.