Dr Ksenija Kuzmina

Lecturer and Programme Director, Institute for Design Innovation

Dr Ksenija Kuzmina

Ksenija is a Lecturer and a Programme Director for MSc Design Innovation Program, leading on Design Research and Design in Organisations modules. Ksenija’s research interest is in exploring how service design can promote human development whilst engaging with evolving social and ecological challenges.

Ksenija’s research studies how methodologies of service design can be adopted, evolved and strategically integrated to enable organisations and their local communities to develop new knowledge and skills as well as design new experiences and services that promote social innovation, well-being and sustainability. Ksenija’s research draws on theories and concepts of design for social change, organisational change, service innovation, value creation, circularity, future studies and reflective practice. She is particularly interested in studying contexts that address needs of young people and has worked extensively in design for sustainable education.

Academic background

Prior to joining Loughborough University London, Ksenija was a Lecturer in Industrial Design at Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University (UK). Before that she held a post as a Course Director of MSc Design Strategy and Leadership at the Centre for Competitive Strategic Design, Cranfield University (UK) where she worked closely with Ellen MacArthur Foundation serving as an academic mentor on Schmidt MacArthur Fellowship programme.

Ksenija has professional experience in digital design and worked for several years in the advertisement industry including with The Think Tank (T3) agency (USA).  

Current research and collaborations

Guest co-editor of the Special Issue Sustainable Design Education and Implementation, journal of Sustainability (in collaboration with Dr Vicky Lofthouse).

Co-investigator on the Climate Action Hero’s project, developing creative leadership in young people to imagine and create desirable futures for themselves and their community (in collaboration with Dr Laura Santamaria, Sina Marleen Petersen, CitizensUK, Snook and wider set of designers and community organisers).

Lead Loughborough University London’s contribution to HOME Centre for Doctoral Training Programme 2021-2024 (in collaboration with Prof. Rebecca Cain, Prof. Victoria Haines, Dr Val Mitchell, Dr Stuart Cockbill, Ben Cole and others).

Lead on ”Embedding ‘Reflection’ into Student’s Learning Journey”, Teaching Innovation Award Project 2019-ongoing, creating an enhanced approach for teaching reflective practice and a framework for embedding reflection into the student’s learning journey in HE (in collaboration with James Moran, Dr Thor Roser, and Prof. Tony Ghaye).

Co-Investigator on ‘This Woman Does!’ project 2019-ongoing the aim of the project is to explore design-led and anthropological methods to capture and understand everyday realities of women in the workforce and their relationship with physical activity and exercise (in collaboration with Dr Holly Collison, Stan Windsor, Joint Fund (LUL), Sport England).

Current PhD / research supervisions

Talia Hussain – PhD title: Carousel of Consumption: design and meaning of retail spaces as platforms for value co-creation in circular fashion systems (Techne AHRC-funded doctoral student)

Stephen Cho – PhD title: Exploring Value Co-Creation Through Service Innovation: Managing Competing Logic in Creative Professional Service Firms

Completed PhD / research supervisions

Jamie Sandhu – PhD title: Enhancing design capabilities of Social Innovators in the Community Energy (CE) domain.

The purpose of this PhD is to explore opportunities for Design to support social innovators to develop solutions that strategically affect transitions, and thereby play an enhanced role in the governance of transitions. Specifically, this PhD aims to develop a more coherent understanding of how Service Design can enhance this capability in Social Innovators in the Community Energy (CE) domain.

Interests and activities

Ksenija is an Associate Editor of She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation. She is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, a reviewer for Techne, AHRC-funded doctoral training partnership and a peer reviewer for several academic journals, including International Journal of Design, She Ji and Sustainability. She is also a Visiting Lecturer of service design at the University of Minho (Portugal) and University of Twente (Netherlands). 

At Loughborough London, Ksenija co-leads Reflective Working Group (RWG) with Dr Thor Roser and represents carer’s group at Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee.

Ksenija is a member and an active contributor to several networks including Sustainable and Environmental Education (SEEd) network, Service Design in Education Network (SDinED) and Service Design Network – Academic Task Force (SDN-ATF). 

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