Dr Ashley Ajumoke Stewart
IAS Residential Fellow
University of Port Harcourt
Ashley A. Stewart is a visual communication designer, researcher, and educator whose work spans design for health, social impact, and decolonising education. She holds a PhD in Visual Communication Design from the University of Port Harcourt, where her research focused on developing user-centred environmental graphics for wayfinding in primary health centres, using participatory and ethnographic methods to enhance accessibility in public health spaces. Ashley lectures in visual communication, advertising, and design management at the University of Port Harcourt. She is committed to rethinking design education in African contexts by integrating local knowledge systems, inclusive pedagogies, and visual storytelling into both theory and practice. Her teaching innovations have improved student outcomes and fostered culturally relevant creative engagement.
An advocate for socially engaged design, Ashley has led hybrid exhibitions and co-created community-based arts-in-health initiatives through Global Arts in Medicine Projects, the British Council, and the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA). She is also a published scholar and international speaker on visual culture, creative health, and identity in design. During her IAS Residential Fellowship at Loughborough University, Ashley will collaborate with Dr. Firat Batmaz, Dr. Sara Saravi, Dr. Robert Harland and the Graphic Design Research Unit to explore visual place narratives, urban semiotics, and environmental communication in African cities. Her work aims to contribute to inclusive urban development by reimagining public spaces through the lens of design ecologies and spatial justice.
During their IAS Residential Fellowship, Dr Stewart is collaborating with Dr Firat Batmaz and Dr Sara Saravi from the Department of Computer Science.