About the host

Prof Sarah Cheang (Head of Programme of V&A/RCA History of Design MA)

Sarah is a design historian. Her wide-ranging practice focuses on East Asian material culture and the body, with a special interest in fashion and race.

Sarah Cheang joined the RCA in 2011, and has led the History of Design Programme since 2020. A founder member of the Research Collective for Decoloniality and Fashion, Sarah works closely with a group of international scholars and activists who look to counter Eurocentricism in fashion studies and more inclusive and caring world-views in the fashion industry.

Sarah’s teaching interests reflect a commitment to shape more inclusive curricula and decolonial approaches to global history. Recent research and teaching have focussed on concepts of decolonial aesthesis, through experimental teaching methods and the research-led initiative OPEN. Issues of gender, race and ethnicity are often uppermost in her work, and she chaired the Design History Society Equalities Working group 2019–20.

One-to-one meetings with the RCA in Delhi