Sign Up Sessions 4 - Day 2 - 10:30 - 11:45

Sessions Available:

There are four options to choose from for the block of sign-up sessions on Day 2 of the Congress. The details of all four sessions are below, please use the relevant link to sign up for the sessions on Inkpath. Some sessions have limited capacities, and spaces are available in all sessions on a first-come-first served basis. 

All Four sessions run 10:30 - 11:45.

Sign-up 1: Ways of Not Seeing: Listen Party

Joseph Rizzo-Naudi - Performance

For decades, art galleries have provided blind visitors with audio descriptions of paintings in their collections. But these descriptions are often only dry, “objective” accounts of the fabulous artworks they aim to represent. Now, a new world of imaginative audio description is emerging, and it promises to transform the experience of art galleries for blind and sighted people alike.

Our guide to these new approaches is blind writer Joseph Rizzo Naudi, who takes us on a search for a highly unusual oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter, Frans Hals. Join him as this elusive painting is brought to life by a unique group of blind and not-so-blind describers, and experience for yourself a fascinating approach to visual art that depends not so much on what we see, but what we say (Ways of Not Seeing, BBC  Radio 4).

Ways of Not Seeing is a half-hour radio show which uses blind-led, narrative approaches to describing artwork to create an immersive experience of a single painting. The programme was created in 2025 by Techne practice-based researcher Joseph Rizzo Naudi and freelance radio producer Michael Umney, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2025.

During the session we will listen to the programme and discuss our responses, facilitated by Joseph Rizzo Naudi. The radio programme will be subtitled.

Joe is a blind writer and facilitator based in London. He is a Techne postgraduate researcher at Royal Holloway working with artwork description, fiction technique and blindness as a generative approach. His writing has been supported by Arts Council England and the London Writers Awards. More at josephrizzonaudi.com.

Sign-up 2: Q&A with the Techne Team

Carol Hughes, Kate Ferry-Swainson, Ev Dubinsky

Please join us for a relaxed and informal session with Techne’s Carol, Kate and Ev! We are here for you to ask questions and find out key information about funding you can access and how to fill in the application forms together with how we are working to make our Techne community more inclusive for everyone. Come along if you have individual questions for Carol about your funding or want to learn how to apply for research funding (RTSG form) or career enhancement funding (CEA form). If you want to know more about applying for or running a student-led event or the student-led conference, Kate is standing by to guide you. If you’d like to suggest ideas to broaden our EDI awareness, come and speak with Ev or ask them questions. Every question is welcome! Carol, Kate and Ev are here to help and support you through the processes, help you to make use of the Techne funds available and feel respected and heard so that you can get the most out of your PhD.

Carol Hughes has been with Techne since its inception in early 2014 and has seen many students come through our Techne doors and many changes over the last 12 years. In summary, Carol is responsible for Techne student finance and funding records, monitoring the approval process of RTSG and CEA applications and all UKRI and AHRC Terms & Conditions adherence. Carol is the person to come to if you have any questions whatsoever about your PhD funding.

Kate Ferry-Swainson was a Techne student from 2020 to 2025 and joined the team in February 2026. She is responsible for delivering Congresses, devising and running the training programme, helping students create student-led events and the student-led conference, updating Inkpath and the Techne website and writing the student newsletter. She is delighted to help students get the most out of their PhD – and over the finishing line.

Ev Dubinsky (they/them) joined Techne as EDI Coordinator in February 2026. With a background in intersectional activism and a longstanding commitment to trans rights advocacy, Ev brings both personal passion and practical expertise to the role. They are responsible for progressing Techne's strategic EDI goals across its nine-university consortium, reviewing and updating key EDI documentation, and ensuring inclusive practice is embedded across Techne's communications and training. Ev is the person to speak to if you have questions about EDI at Techne, or ideas for making our community more inclusive.

Sign-up 3: The Transferable Skills of Writing Careers Workshop 

Darcey Gillie (remote)

In this (mildly) interactive workshop, we’ll explore the transferable skills that you’ve gained from academic writing. What are they? How can we distinguish between “local” and “transferable” writing skills? What vocabulary can we use to describe them? How can we write about our writing skills for different audiences? What are some fringe benefits of your writing skills in your wider life and career?

Darcey has 15 years’ experience supporting the careers of PGRs, research staff, and senior academic colleagues. She was pedagogical lead on the FutureLearn MOOC “Career Management for Early Career Academic Researchers”, which won a national award for impact and was used by researchers all over the world. Her portfolio career in careers includes being professional development manager at the University of Sheffield where she taught on the PG Cert in Academic Practice, Careers Consultant for Postgraduates and Technology at the University of Manchester, managing a team of employability advisers at Sheffield Hallam. She combines her freelance career as The Career Doctor Online with being Careers Consultant for Research Staff at the University of Edinburgh. 

Hybrid

Sign-up 4: Visual, Textual, Material: A Hands-On Encounter with the University of Brighton Design Archives

Dr Sue Breakell, Oknim Jo, Anne Nielsen - Workshop

This workshop provides a theoretical and practical introduction to working with archives, through a focus on the internationally significant University of Brighton Design Archives, and the variety of visual, textual and material forms it contains. The session will help delegates to refine their understanding of archives as subjects as well as sources, through theory and practice. Using the Design Archives collections, it will examine some of the forms and structures of archives, and the ways that they are gathered, preserved and understood. Participants will consider ways that this documentation of past practice can be transformed into knowledge, through description, interpretation and narrative, and how language itself transmits archival knowledge. Together, we will consider what archival words not only record but also do: how they inspire and materialise new insights from the archive. The session will include contributions from two current Techne doctoral researchers who will reflect on their experiences of undertaking archival research. There will be time set aside for discussion and practical exercises. The session is aimed at new and experienced archive users alike.

Dr Sue Breakell is Archive Director / Principal Research Fellow at University of Brighton Design Archives, and co-leads the Museums, Archives, Exhibitions strand of the Centre for Design History. She co-edited The Materiality of the Archive (Routledge, 2023, with Wendy Russell) and co-directed the short documentary Designing from Home (2025, with Dr Harriet Atkinson). 

Oknim Jo is a PhD candidate at the University of Brighton, where her research explores overlooked figures in interior design and the furniture industry in South Korea during the post–Korean War reconstruction period, employing a transnational analytical framework. She also co-leads the ‘Architectural and Spatial Histories’ research strand at the Centre for Design History. 

Anne Nielsen is a museum curator and researcher who specialises in provenance research, collecting histories and documentation practices. Her collaborative PhD (University of Brighton and the British Museum) examines duplicates, dispersal and disposal in museums. She co-leads the ‘Museums, Exhibitions and Archives’ research strand of the Centre for Design History.