Vivien Chan
@inoutofpractice.bsky.social
Sowing seeds 🌱 Making sensations 💫 (Dr, she/they)
Design historian, educator, image maker.
Hong Kong, design history, material/visual/spatial culture, everyday.
@iias.bsky.social Asia in the World Fellow.
https://vivienchan.co.uk/
Design historian, educator, image maker.
Hong Kong, design history, material/visual/spatial culture, everyday.
@iias.bsky.social Asia in the World Fellow.
https://vivienchan.co.uk/
Reposted by Vivien Chan
Listen to the poets.
February 3, 2026 at 6:26 PM
Listen to the poets.
Reposted by Vivien Chan
How has the History Workshop Journal collective sustained its commitment to radical history over fifty tumultuous years?
Two HWJ veterans, Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks, sat down to share their memories with @beckierutherford.bsky.social and @inoutofpractice.bsky.social🎙✊🏻
Two HWJ veterans, Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks, sat down to share their memories with @beckierutherford.bsky.social and @inoutofpractice.bsky.social🎙✊🏻
Working Collectively Then and Now
How did History Workshop Journal's editorial collective sustain its commitment to radical history over fifty tumultuous years? Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks discuss.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
January 29, 2026 at 7:26 AM
How has the History Workshop Journal collective sustained its commitment to radical history over fifty tumultuous years?
Two HWJ veterans, Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks, sat down to share their memories with @beckierutherford.bsky.social and @inoutofpractice.bsky.social🎙✊🏻
Two HWJ veterans, Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks, sat down to share their memories with @beckierutherford.bsky.social and @inoutofpractice.bsky.social🎙✊🏻
I recently had the great pleasure to be interviewed by Typesetter, an independent publisher doing incredible work: typesetter.hk/en/2025/12/1...
Modular Market, Everyday Experience, and the Movement of Diversified Historiographies—An Interview with Vivien Chan
Editor’s Note: The recent “walking craze” has brought Hong Kong’s public housing estates into the local—and even international—spotlight in a new way, sparking a wave of aesthetic, nostalgic, and hist...
typesetter.hk
January 28, 2026 at 2:22 PM
I recently had the great pleasure to be interviewed by Typesetter, an independent publisher doing incredible work: typesetter.hk/en/2025/12/1...
Somehow still hanging on!
All jokes aside, I'm so grateful to my HW and NTU colleagues, and of course my former students, for sharing their insights and getting stuck in. Excited to celebrate HWJ100 with everyone on Saturday!
All jokes aside, I'm so grateful to my HW and NTU colleagues, and of course my former students, for sharing their insights and getting stuck in. Excited to celebrate HWJ100 with everyone on Saturday!
Which histories are meaningful to you?
Ten illustration students from Nottingham Trent University consider their personal connections to the past and what it means to practice history from below.
Ten illustration students from Nottingham Trent University consider their personal connections to the past and what it means to practice history from below.
Illustrating History From Below
What does it mean for history to be public? Which histories are meaningful to you? Ten illustration students consider their personal connections to the past and what it means to practice history from ...
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
January 28, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Somehow still hanging on!
All jokes aside, I'm so grateful to my HW and NTU colleagues, and of course my former students, for sharing their insights and getting stuck in. Excited to celebrate HWJ100 with everyone on Saturday!
All jokes aside, I'm so grateful to my HW and NTU colleagues, and of course my former students, for sharing their insights and getting stuck in. Excited to celebrate HWJ100 with everyone on Saturday!
Reposted by Vivien Chan
How has the legacy of History Workshop Journal inspired our own editorial collective?
@beckierutherford.bsky.social, @inoutofpractice.bsky.social, and @marralsham.bsky.social consider their historical practice and relationship to radical history.
@beckierutherford.bsky.social, @inoutofpractice.bsky.social, and @marralsham.bsky.social consider their historical practice and relationship to radical history.
Radical Synergies
Three of our past and present editors reflect on the ways in which History Workshop Journal has influenced and inspired their practice during their time on the History Workshop collective.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
January 13, 2026 at 7:41 AM
How has the legacy of History Workshop Journal inspired our own editorial collective?
@beckierutherford.bsky.social, @inoutofpractice.bsky.social, and @marralsham.bsky.social consider their historical practice and relationship to radical history.
@beckierutherford.bsky.social, @inoutofpractice.bsky.social, and @marralsham.bsky.social consider their historical practice and relationship to radical history.
And that's a wrap! My @historyworkshop.org.uk comes to an end. Two years ends with a grand total of 36 articles, 15 for From Place to Place, and 8 illustration commissions with my students.
A huge thank you to the team, I've learned so much about what I want my practice to look like! 💫
A huge thank you to the team, I've learned so much about what I want my practice to look like! 💫
September 27, 2025 at 8:07 AM
And that's a wrap! My @historyworkshop.org.uk comes to an end. Two years ends with a grand total of 36 articles, 15 for From Place to Place, and 8 illustration commissions with my students.
A huge thank you to the team, I've learned so much about what I want my practice to look like! 💫
A huge thank you to the team, I've learned so much about what I want my practice to look like! 💫
Reposted by Vivien Chan
The summer has seen anti-trans campaigns across the UK & US, alongside a crisis in healthcare. But what use could trans history have in these times beyond proof 'we have always been here'?
Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures:
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/queer-histor...
Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures:
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/queer-histor...
Imagining Trans Futures
Sam Rutherford reflects on how trans histories and historians can work towards building power in the trans community.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
September 23, 2025 at 9:34 AM
The summer has seen anti-trans campaigns across the UK & US, alongside a crisis in healthcare. But what use could trans history have in these times beyond proof 'we have always been here'?
Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures:
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/queer-histor...
Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures:
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/queer-histor...
It's a huge honour for this piece by Lola and Agnes to be the final addition to the From Place to Place series. As my HW Fellowship draws to a close, I can't think of a more helpful reminder to keep finding new intimacies and continue feeling through my practice. I hope you've enjoyed the series!
What if history could be 'weightless'?
Lola Olufemi and Agnes Cameron expand on their collaboration, This is a Temporal Landscape You Will Find No Direction Here, a digital assemblage for reimagining our relationship to the radical histories before us:
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/practice-his...
Lola Olufemi and Agnes Cameron expand on their collaboration, This is a Temporal Landscape You Will Find No Direction Here, a digital assemblage for reimagining our relationship to the radical histories before us:
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/practice-his...
YOU WILL FIND NO DIRECTION HERE
Lola Olufemi and Agnes Cameron revive resistance in the concepts of 'history' and 'technology', through digitally reassembling the archive.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
September 16, 2025 at 8:24 AM
It's a huge honour for this piece by Lola and Agnes to be the final addition to the From Place to Place series. As my HW Fellowship draws to a close, I can't think of a more helpful reminder to keep finding new intimacies and continue feeling through my practice. I hope you've enjoyed the series!
Grateful to Az for coming to us to write this piece. As a V&A/RCA alum and design student myself, reflecting on the process of learning what is 'good' design/history through working with Az helped clarify some of the complex emotions I had visiting the Storehouse!
The V&A East Storehouse opened earlier this year to great fanfare, heralding a state-of-the-art 'working museum' providing 'radical access' to design and the archive.
Az Crawford considers the history and politics behind 'all of this for all of you':
www.historyworkshop....↗
Az Crawford considers the history and politics behind 'all of this for all of you':
www.historyworkshop....↗
All of this for all of you
Az Crawford contemplates the historical narratives and aesthetic politics behind the new V&A East Storehouse.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
August 14, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Grateful to Az for coming to us to write this piece. As a V&A/RCA alum and design student myself, reflecting on the process of learning what is 'good' design/history through working with Az helped clarify some of the complex emotions I had visiting the Storehouse!
🚨HW FELLOWSHIP KLAXON🚨
We're now in the final week for applications, deadline is on Friday!
DMs are open for any questions about the position!
We're now in the final week for applications, deadline is on Friday!
DMs are open for any questions about the position!
📣We're into the FINAL WEEK for applications for two Editorial Fellowship positions 2025-27!📣
Deadline is midnight 15th August (that's this Friday!), and the fellowships are open to any early career historians. See the post below for the full details:
www.historyworkshop....
Deadline is midnight 15th August (that's this Friday!), and the fellowships are open to any early career historians. See the post below for the full details:
www.historyworkshop....
Call for Applications: Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop, 2025
History Workshop is advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships in 2025, open to early career historians.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
August 12, 2025 at 11:25 AM
🚨HW FELLOWSHIP KLAXON🚨
We're now in the final week for applications, deadline is on Friday!
DMs are open for any questions about the position!
We're now in the final week for applications, deadline is on Friday!
DMs are open for any questions about the position!
It's a pleasure to include Sabine's research @sabinehanke.bsky.social in the series! The history of the circus, while problematic in contemporary times, is clearly a site where you can find important intersecting identities and frictions.
The spectacle of the circus has long been controversial - but how did performers resist the 'exoticised' commodification of their identities?
Sabine Hanke @sabinehanke.bsky.social examines the history of Lakota performers in the Sarrasani circus in interwar Germany:
www.historyworkshop....
Sabine Hanke @sabinehanke.bsky.social examines the history of Lakota performers in the Sarrasani circus in interwar Germany:
www.historyworkshop....
Performing the Exotic and Lakota Resistance
Sabine Hanke examines how Lakota performers challenged and resisted the 'exotic othering' of their identities in the Sarrasani circus.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
July 29, 2025 at 9:13 AM
It's a pleasure to include Sabine's research @sabinehanke.bsky.social in the series! The history of the circus, while problematic in contemporary times, is clearly a site where you can find important intersecting identities and frictions.
Reposted by Vivien Chan
Sometimes the historical dictionary offers solace through the existence of an obsolete word that is sorely needed now. One of them is ‘respair’, recorded just once, in the 15th century. It means fresh hope, and a recovery from despair.
July 26, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Sometimes the historical dictionary offers solace through the existence of an obsolete word that is sorely needed now. One of them is ‘respair’, recorded just once, in the 15th century. It means fresh hope, and a recovery from despair.
Myself and Mary's fellowships are ending in October, and we're now looking for two new fellows!
I have had the best time, it's been a brilliant way to transition out of the PhD alongside teaching. It's been a joy to learn from the team and contribute something of my own too!
Any questions? DM me!
I have had the best time, it's been a brilliant way to transition out of the PhD alongside teaching. It's been a joy to learn from the team and contribute something of my own too!
Any questions? DM me!
Join us! We are advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop in 2025-27.
Our fellowships support early career historians to develop expertise in public, radical and digital history & to gain experience of working in an editorial team.
www.historyworkshop....
Our fellowships support early career historians to develop expertise in public, radical and digital history & to gain experience of working in an editorial team.
www.historyworkshop....
Call for Applications: Editorial Fellowships at History Workshop, 2025
History Workshop is advertising two part-time, paid Editorial Fellowships in 2025, open to early career historians.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
July 13, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Myself and Mary's fellowships are ending in October, and we're now looking for two new fellows!
I have had the best time, it's been a brilliant way to transition out of the PhD alongside teaching. It's been a joy to learn from the team and contribute something of my own too!
Any questions? DM me!
I have had the best time, it's been a brilliant way to transition out of the PhD alongside teaching. It's been a joy to learn from the team and contribute something of my own too!
Any questions? DM me!
I'm so pleased to include Kar Yern in the series, both because we share lots of research interests, and because his research is so dynamic and rich! Keep an eye out for his upcoming book on Malay(si)a Foodways 👀👀👀
‘We always witness hawkers bringing necessities to kampungs with bicycles’.
Chin Kar Yern traces a history of hawkers, movement, state power and (ultimately) survival in Malay(si)a.
www.historyworkshop....
Chin Kar Yern traces a history of hawkers, movement, state power and (ultimately) survival in Malay(si)a.
www.historyworkshop....
The Shape of Hunger
Chin Kar Yern explores how hawkers have shaped the landscape of hunger in Malaysia.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
July 9, 2025 at 5:25 AM
I'm so pleased to include Kar Yern in the series, both because we share lots of research interests, and because his research is so dynamic and rich! Keep an eye out for his upcoming book on Malay(si)a Foodways 👀👀👀
Another in From Place to Place today, and so excited to include sensory histories in this piece by Meg Parsons and Karen Fisher. Thinking about how processes of itinerance have the capacity to be violent, in colonial notions of exploration and transformation.
How was smell weaponised in settler colonial processes of scoping and transforming landscapes inhabited by indigenous people?
Meg Parsons and Karen Fisher on the use of the eucalyptus tree by Pākehā settlers on Māori swamp-land: www.historyworkshop....
Meg Parsons and Karen Fisher on the use of the eucalyptus tree by Pākehā settlers on Māori swamp-land: www.historyworkshop....
The Swamp and the Gum Tree
Meg Parsons and Karen Fisher on how Pākehā settlers weaponised smell in the colonisation of Māori swamp-land.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
June 24, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Another in From Place to Place today, and so excited to include sensory histories in this piece by Meg Parsons and Karen Fisher. Thinking about how processes of itinerance have the capacity to be violent, in colonial notions of exploration and transformation.
I'm so excited to share that from October I will be a fellow at IIAS @iias.bsky.social in Leiden. I'll be working on a project on wetness in spatial histories of Hong Kong and SEA, continuing on from my research on wet markets. Looking forward to exploring NL!
www.iias.asia/profile/vivi...
www.iias.asia/profile/vivi...
Vivien Chan | IIAS
www.iias.asia
June 19, 2025 at 12:44 PM
I'm so excited to share that from October I will be a fellow at IIAS @iias.bsky.social in Leiden. I'll be working on a project on wetness in spatial histories of Hong Kong and SEA, continuing on from my research on wet markets. Looking forward to exploring NL!
www.iias.asia/profile/vivi...
www.iias.asia/profile/vivi...
Another super exciting one to add to the From Place to Place roster! What if we thought of itinerance through objects? how are histories materialised? So wonderful to work with Hege on this piece!
What can the shipping container tell us about the history of capitalism?
Hege Høyer Leivestad unpacks these icons of global labour and goods.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/capitalism/c...
Hege Høyer Leivestad unpacks these icons of global labour and goods.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/capitalism/c...
Capitalism Compressed
Hege Høyer Leivestad explores the ultimate itinerant object in histories of global capitalism: the shipping container.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
June 12, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Another super exciting one to add to the From Place to Place roster! What if we thought of itinerance through objects? how are histories materialised? So wonderful to work with Hege on this piece!
A huge honour to have Becky Taylor in From Place to Place, and amazing to see such beautiful and rare archival material alongside her research.
From the 1920s onwards, Scottish authorities systematically targeted Travellers in an attempt to force them out of their traditional, nomadic way of life.
Becky Taylor explores how sedentarism has been used to subjugate the Scots Traveller community.
www.historyworkshop....
Becky Taylor explores how sedentarism has been used to subjugate the Scots Traveller community.
www.historyworkshop....
Hendry and The Scottish ‘Tinker Experiment’
Becky Taylor explores how ideas of sedentarism affected the lives of Gypsy/Traveller children and families in Scotland.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
June 10, 2025 at 8:27 AM
A huge honour to have Becky Taylor in From Place to Place, and amazing to see such beautiful and rare archival material alongside her research.
So happy to be able to commission more design historians to write for HW! As a grassroots archive enthusiast, I was so excited to find out about Elli's collection of garments.
How can a Jamaican fashion archive challenge colonial histories of the Carribean, and what resistances does it reveal?
Elli Michaela Young responds to the provocation 'Is there really fashion in Jamaica?'
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/black-histor...
Elli Michaela Young responds to the provocation 'Is there really fashion in Jamaica?'
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/black-histor...
Is there really fashion in Jamaica?
Elli Young explores how archiving Jamaican fashion history challenges colonial narratives of the Caribbean.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
May 29, 2025 at 6:31 AM
So happy to be able to commission more design historians to write for HW! As a grassroots archive enthusiast, I was so excited to find out about Elli's collection of garments.
Huge congrats to @maryknewman.bsky.social on her new series on Indigenous histories!
How can we better approach the histories of Indigenous peoples?
Mary Katherine Newman introduces a new History Workshop series which will introduce a range of scholars, educators, and activists and the ways in which they examine Indigenous histories.
www.historyworkshop....
Mary Katherine Newman introduces a new History Workshop series which will introduce a range of scholars, educators, and activists and the ways in which they examine Indigenous histories.
www.historyworkshop....
Indigenous Historical Practices
Delve into Indigenous history with our History Workshop series, highlighting complex systems of historical knowledge and their significance.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
May 20, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Huge congrats to @maryknewman.bsky.social on her new series on Indigenous histories!
I had the pleasure of being one of the people Juli would share her insights with while walking around Hong Kong. It sparked lots of conversations about what we can vs. what we choose to call history. Super honoured to share Juli's work in From Place to Place!
How do you tell a history of a city hidden in plain sight?
Fifty years since the first arrival of Vietnamese refugees to Hong Kong, Juliana Yat Shun Kei asks how to adequately locate Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugee camps.
Fifty years since the first arrival of Vietnamese refugees to Hong Kong, Juliana Yat Shun Kei asks how to adequately locate Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugee camps.
Do you know this place used to be a camp?
How do you tell a history of a city hidden in plain sight? Juliana Yat Shun Kei asks how best to locate Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugee camps.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
May 13, 2025 at 7:44 AM
I had the pleasure of being one of the people Juli would share her insights with while walking around Hong Kong. It sparked lots of conversations about what we can vs. what we choose to call history. Super honoured to share Juli's work in From Place to Place!
Such an imaginative and exciting piece from @davehitchcock.bsky.social and a significant question about the relationship between itinerance and the making of public spaces - who gets to make it theirs?
How does a public space become a 'begging place'?
In our latest article, Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/urban/beggin...
In our latest article, Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/urban/beggin...
Begging Places
How does a public space become a 'begging place'? David Hitchcock on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
May 8, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Such an imaginative and exciting piece from @davehitchcock.bsky.social and a significant question about the relationship between itinerance and the making of public spaces - who gets to make it theirs?
Reposted by Vivien Chan
How does a public space become a 'begging place'?
In our latest article, Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/urban/beggin...
In our latest article, Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/urban/beggin...
Begging Places
How does a public space become a 'begging place'? David Hitchcock on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
May 8, 2025 at 9:27 AM
How does a public space become a 'begging place'?
In our latest article, Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/urban/beggin...
In our latest article, Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the life of Jamaican street sweeper in Regency London, Charles McGee.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk/urban/beggin...
Reposted by Vivien Chan
We stand in solidarity with trans women and the trans community and we will always be a space that recognises the importance of trans history.
Read on for a selection from our archive 🧵 1/8
Read on for a selection from our archive 🧵 1/8
April 21, 2025 at 9:40 AM
We stand in solidarity with trans women and the trans community and we will always be a space that recognises the importance of trans history.
Read on for a selection from our archive 🧵 1/8
Read on for a selection from our archive 🧵 1/8
Reposted by Vivien Chan
There isn't a story on the BBC News site about today's trans rights rally at Parliament Square where it's estimated 20k attended. But they did have a story last week about the Let Women Speak transphobe rally in Bristol where 100 people attended.
April 19, 2025 at 4:15 PM
There isn't a story on the BBC News site about today's trans rights rally at Parliament Square where it's estimated 20k attended. But they did have a story last week about the Let Women Speak transphobe rally in Bristol where 100 people attended.