Shai Akram-Haythornthwaite

About

Shai Akram is a designer, educator, and researcher in the final stages of a practice-led PhD at Kingston School of Art, funded by the AHRC, LDoc, and TECHNE. Her research explores ethical collaboration between craft and industry — how to design systems that reward makers fairly and support cultural specificity without becoming extractive.

Current Research

Her doctoral project examines how knowledge moves between craft and industrial contexts. Through the Artisa Fellowship at the Crafts Council, fieldwork in Costa Rica, and ongoing studio-based experiments with Studio Alt Shift, she investigates how material agency, narrative, and shared authorship can inform more equitable forms of production.

Three Research Pillars

• Craft as Curiosity — seeing systems differently through material and process.

• Craft as Continuity — sustaining local identity, consent, and care.

• Craft as Connection — designing distributed networks built on trust and fairness.

Approach

Shai’s research is grounded in field observation — learning directly from people, places, and production systems — to understand how collaboration can generate value that is both ethical and enduring.