Alison Barnes

Alison Barnes is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University, with an honorary position as Visiting Research Fellow at Loughborough University (UK). Her research focuses on graphic design’s role in mediating everyday life, place-making, and heritage. She holds a PhD from the University of the Arts London and has held leadership roles across UK institutions, including Programme Leader at Nottingham Trent University and London College of Communication.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Arts London
• Master of Arts, University of the Arts London
• Bachelor of Arts

Research Interests

Barnes explores graphic heritage—objects mediating heritage through graphic form—and its intersection with urban environments, migration, and identity. Her interdisciplinary methods blend graphic design with cultural geography and anthropology, including 'deep mapping' techniques. Recent work includes studies on sports stadia symbolism, London Chinatown’s graphic landscape, and migrant communities’ food heritage.

Publications & Projects

Her 2019 monograph Creative Representations of Place examines graphic design’s spatial narratives. Current projects include Urban Graphic Heritage: People, Politics & Place and the ARC-funded The Collaborative Museum. Recent articles analyze stadium branding and migrant food cultures’ graphic legacies.

• Awards: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Royal Geographical Society

Advising & Grants

Barnes supervises HDR projects on graphic design’s societal roles and leads a sensory ethnography project on migrant 'home-making' practices. Past grants include a 2014 study on material culture in Western Sydney.

Labs/Teams

Associated with Western Sydney's Institute for Culture and Society, she collaborates on interdisciplinary urban and heritage studies.