Sarah Teasley is Professor of Design and Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation for the College of Design and Social Context.

In her research, she works across social history and design research. Her research explores how people use emergent technologies and concepts in everyday work settings, with particular attention how intersectional aspects such as gender, class and culture shape experience and access. She is known for her research in the history of design, craft and manufacturing industry and policy in modern Japan, and for her extensive collaborations with the galleries, museums, libraries and archives (GLAM) sector.

One strand of her research and PhD supervision explores how designers, makers and people more widely engage with emergent technologies and materials in everyday work. Current projects include the ARC-funded AusEaaSI, the Australian Emulation Network preserving and making accessible Australia's born digital cultural heritage, and Fibers of Existence, a collaboration to rethink practices of repair as technical know-how through the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.

She is committed to supporting equitable access to creative decision-making throughout her research, teaching, PhD supervisions and organisational leadership. She has published extensively on gender, class and agency. She works as part of Designing Entangled Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific (DESIAP).

Her other core commitment is to transdisciplinary approaches and exchange between academic disciplines and between researchers and diverse industries and communities, to strengthen capacities for meaningful social and environmental change.

Her publications include Designing Modern Japan (Reaktion 2022) and Global Design History (Routledge 2011), as well as numerous book chapters and articles in journals such as CoDesign, Design Issues and The Journal of Design History. Funding includes support from organisations including the Australian Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), the British Academy and the Association of Asian Studies. She is a member of the Advisory Boards of Design and Culture, Design Issues and Design History, and previously served as Associate Editor of Design and Culture and Vice President of the Design Studies Forum. She holds degrees from Princeton, Musashino Art University and the University of Tokyo.

She offers PhD supervisions in Design in Melbourne and in RMIT's offshore PhD programs. She has taught onto BA Industrial Design (Hons) and the Masters in Design Innovation and Technology  Prior to joining RMIT in 2020, she was Reader in Design History and Head of Programme for History of Design at the Royal College of Art, a collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Sarah Teasley has extensive experience in industry and cross-disciplinary academic partnerships and in consultancy for museums, government and the private sector. Prior to becoming a full-time academic, she worked in film and publishing, including in grassroots, bottom-up community organisations, and gained a diploma in musical performance.

She is a strong advocate for multidisciplinary, industry-integrated research and learning and for responsive, respectful research that facilitates individual and community agency in decision-making.