Centre for Design Studies serves as a hub for research into design across Kristiania and beyond. We are interested in exploring all aspects of design, including its results, methods, theory, culture and consequences. Research spans geographies and temporalities, looking not only at how design has shaped our history and present, both nationally and internationally but also at how it may affect possible futures. Adopting a cross-disciplinary understanding of design we focus on tangible objects of visual and material culture as well on systems and interactions.

PhD-topics at the Centre for Design Studies

Kristiania is recruiting PhD Candidates for 2025. Read more about the available topics for PhD projects, and apply through this page. 

The following topics are connected to the Centre for Design Studies in the PhD in Communication and Leadership:  

     Design studies

     Fashion Communication

     Leadership for design-driven innovation within the public sectors  

The following topics are connected to the Centre for Design Studies in the PhD in Applied Information Technology:

      Human-Centered Design and AI

      Human-Centered AI in Norwegian public health services

Research Projects

Projects 2 CDS

  • Norwegian Fashion: New Histories

    What is the history of Norwegian fashion, and how do we write fashion history in Norway today? This project uncovers as-yet untold histories of Norwegian fashion and reassesses those already known.
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  • Playable Systems

    This project develops processes and methods for teaching at Kristiania University College and Georgetown University, addressing complex issues through game co-design.
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Projects 1 CDS

  • Designing the Future

    Can you touch a system? How do you change it? This interdisciplinary (pre)project explores how we learn about, represent and transform systemic issues through design of practice, organizations and policy.
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  • Designing Educational Wargames

    Designing Educational Wargames" investigates the use of "wargames" as educational tools in higher education. The project owner is the Norwegian Defense Research Institute (FFI).
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Projects 3 CDS

  • The New Typography in Scandinavia

    The first in-depth study of the New Typography movement of the 1920s and 1930s in the Scandinavian countries, focusing on its spread, adoption, adaptation and use.
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  • 21st Century Graphic Design: Practice, Industry and Society

    The project explores graphic design in a period of great technological, political and societal change through the application of terms like anxiety, nostalgia, pleasure, flexibility and fragmentation.
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Prosjekter 4 CDS

  • Fashion Media in the Age of Connectivity

    Fashion Media in the Age of Connectivity investigates fashion as mediated expression in digital domains. It connects perspectives from media and communication studies with studies of fashion.
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  • Norwegian fashion: cultural production and aesthetic mediational practices

    The project investigates how Norwegian clothing designers relate to digital culture and aesthetic practices in interaction with the extended cultural field they are part of.
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Design Research Forum

Design Research Forum is a monthly seminar organised by the Centre for Design Studies. The forum meets on the last Thursday each month (August-June) and is open for everyone at Kristiania. 

Partners

the AI Lab Kristiania

The Georgetown Iteration Lab 

Members

  • Adeline Hvidsten

    Adeline Hvidsten

    Leader and Associate Professor, PhD
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  • Trond Klevgaard

    Trond Klevgaard

    Leader and Associate Professor, PhD
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  • Synne Skjulstad

    Synne Skjulstad

    Associate Professor, PhD
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  • Margaret Rynning

    Margaret Rynning

    Professor
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  • Anna Kirah

    Anna Kirah

    Assistant Professor
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  • Ranvir Rai

    Ranvir Rai

    Associate Professor, PhD
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  • Vårin Alme

    Vårin Alme

    External Research Partner, FFI
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