Role
Chris, a Senior Lecturer in Product Design, excels in guiding undergraduate students to achieve exceptional design competencies and industry-ready skills. With extensive experience in the field, he plays a pivotal role in developing and delivering engaging lectures and workshops, designing industry-aligned course content, leading modules, and engaging in collaborative research. Chris fosters a dynamic learning environment that educates and inspires the next generation of designers, bringing new thinking and practices within the design studio, from engaging with inclusive practices to integrating emerging A.I. technologies.
Career overview
Chris is an enthusiastic design practitioner with ten years of experience in the design industry and higher education. He graduated with a master’s degree in Ma Design: Product & Furniture from Nottingham Trent University. Throughout his career, Chris has prioritised a proactive curiosity in developing new contextual approaches towards the diversify of thought processes in design, advancing his individual abilities and confidence into a genuine passion. This decade of learning has continually enhanced his practical and theoretical knowledge within the Product Design discipline, focusing on the future of design methodologies through global contexts in design education and practise, identifying the challenges and purposefulness of participatory design, decolonising design, social innovation, and sustainability. Currently, he leads modules on contextual design studies and the role product design plays in our complex world, encouraging cross-pollination through interpersonal, interdisciplinary, and intercultural collaboration in the studio.
Research areas
Design Process, Decolonisation, Artificial Intelligence, and new Forms of Thinking in Design
Publications
Hanley, C.(2023) Decoloniality in Design: Weaving Curriculum & Community towards Decolonial Futures, in Derek Jones, Naz Borekci, Violeta Clemente, James Corazzo, Nicole Lotz, Liv Merete Nielsen, Lesley-Ann Noel (eds.), The 7th International Conference for Design Education Researchers, 29 November - 1 December 2023, London, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drslxd.2024.055