Niki Wallace

Niki Wallace is an educator, researcher, and designer at the University of the Arts London (UAL), serving as Interim Programme Director for Graphic Design across Camberwell, Chelsea, and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts. With a PhD in Design from the University of South Australia, Wallace focuses on Just Transitions through co-creation, regenerative cultures, and complexity science. They are a Course Leader for MA Global Collaborative Design Practice and supervise five PhD students. Their work intersects with climate justice, systems thinking, and design pedagogy.

• Education:
  • PhD in Design (2020), University of South Australia
  • Bachelor of Design (Honors) (2015), University of South Australia
  • Bachelor of Visual Communication (2007), University of South Australia

Wallace’s research addresses the psychology of change, exploring how design can catalyze post-capitalist futures through regenerative design games, multi-level design experiments, and relational principles. They apply frameworks from Transitions Studies, Complexity Science, and Social Sciences to develop tools for climate justice in higher education.

Key projects include the Net Zero Lab, a collective for regenerative co-design, and the UAL Climate Systems Mapping toolkit. Recent grants include the Design for Planet and Innovation Scholar awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Their professional roles encompass membership in UAL’s Climate and Environment Action Group and Academic Discourse and Action Learning Working Group.

Wallace’s supervision spans PhD topics on eco-social justice, regenerative design games, multi-species ethnography, leverage points for transitions, and future institutions. Their teaching includes communication design theory, research methods, and consumer culture, previously at the University of South Australia.