Harriet Edquist

Biography

Harriet Edquist is Professor of Architectural History at RMIT University. She has a BA and MA in Classics from Monash University and a PhD in Architectural History from RMIT.

From 2001 to 2007, she was Head of the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT and from 2004 to 2005, President of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand. At the end of 2007 Harriet became the Foundation Director of the RMIT Design Archives. Conceived as both a collection of historical and contemporary Melbourne design practices, and a research hub, the Design Archives encourages doctoral research into its collections, publishes the biannual, peer-reviewed RDA Journal, develops exhibitions and publishes catalogues, papers and books related to its collections.

Harriet publishes widely in her areas of interest and has curated a number of significant design-based exhibitions: The Stony Rises Project (2010) RMIT Gallery and Victorian and South Australian regional galleries); Michael O’Connell. The Lost Modernist (2011) Bendigo Art Gallery); Free, Secular and Democratic: building the Public Library 1853-1913 (2013) Murdoch Gallery at the State Library of Victoria and Shifting Gear: Design, Innovation and the Australian Car (2015) NGV. In 2015 Harriet was elected inaugural President of Automotive Historians Australia Inc.

Harriet was awarded Member (AM) in the General Division of The Order of Australia in the Australia Day 2020 Honours List.