Practice Research at 100: Writing the long history of practice research in the art school

The emergence of practice research in art schools in the UK is frequently traced to early definitions of practice-led research (e.g. Frayling 1993) or the inclusion of ‘practical outputs’ in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (HERO 1999). However, the first recorded creative practice PhD dissertation in the United States was awarded in 1929, and subsequent to this US education leaders debated the role of practice doctorates at regular intervals (Fanning 1940; Koch 1941; Huntly 1941; Weller et al 1960; Gertler and Meltzer 1970), alongside occasional calls to ‘express research as art’ (Jeffers 1993). These periodic returns suggest that there is a richer and deeper international history to be written on the emergence of the idea of creative practice as research in art, and on the conditions that led to the flourishing of ideas and opportunities in the 1990s and early 2000s.

This session invites papers that contribute to the longer history of practice research in the art school up to the 1990s. Suggested areas of focus include (but are not limited to):

• early debates in international higher education;
• international and transnational emergence of theories of practice or creative research;
• the impact and influence of structural changes in the educational landscape for art schools;
• the influence of key theories, texts, events and dialogues;
• case studies and examples of practice research before the 1990s;

and the changing role of the art professor.

Particularly encouraged are papers that explore the longer history of practice research beyond the Anglophone.

Submit your Paper via this form. Please download, complete and send it directly to the Session Convenor(s) below by Sunday 2 November 2025:

Damian Sutton, Coventry University, ac2719@coventry.ac.uk

Sian Vaughan, Birmingham City University, Sian.Vaughan@bcu.ac.uk