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Dr Julie Trueman

Assistant Professor

Department: Northumbria School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries

Julie is a medically qualified doctor, an Interior Designer, Assistant Professor and Year 3 tutor on the BA(Hons) Interior Design Programme at the School of Design, Northumbria University.

Julie has a unique hybrid background derived from a former career as a hospital doctor/ Wellcome Trust Research Fellow for 14 years combined with a career change in 2003 to commercial interior design. Having worked on national and international interior and architectural projects in industry with a focus on leisure, this experience supported her transition to teaching when she joined Northumbria in 2009. 
Her roles since have included external examiner, programme leader, international admissions tutor, member of the design school’s ethics committee and year tutor, with a lead role in exhibition design for both student and research-oriented projects. Julie has led on establishing a material sample library which offers a unique resource for students across the whole programme and she maintains an active relationship with over 400 alumni reflecting the important link between the standards required for a successful programme and its relationship to an ensuing professional career.

Julie Trueman

Campus Address

School of Design
Northumbria University, City Campus East 2
Newcastle upon Tyne
Ne1 8ST

Drawing from her dual background, Julie’s initial research interests focused on spatial and architectural solutions to improve not only health outcomes and efficiency, but how our designs can also support compassion, dignity and empathy when designing for, and beyond, our final days. Over recent years Julie has established a unique relationship with the Bauhaus Dessau. She co-ran the Open Studio Programme at the Bauhaus, Dessau in 2018, 2020 and 2023, and collaborated with the Bauhaus in her sabbatical exploring student anticipation and engagement when working online with iconic institutions, using innovative digital ethnographic techniques as part of the evaluation process. She was subsequently invited by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation to contribute to “Schools of Departure: A Digital Atlas of Bauhaus Education after 1933” funded by the Ministry for Infrastructure and Digital Affairs of the State of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Julie’s ongoing and integrated research focuses on the spatial impact of learning environments, incorporating sustainability, biophilic principles and the proxemics of learning, for which she has been recognised with an Enhancement Project award and a Distinguished Teaching Fellow award (2022).

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Rooms of departure: From teaching museums to empty walls, Trueman, J. 16 Nov 2022
  • Development of an ethical roadmap, Craig, C., Wallace, J., Montague, K., Koulidou, N., Fisher, H., Carvalho, L., Groot, L., Trueman, J., Lawson, S., Morrissey, K., Duncan, T., South, J. 31 May 2021, In: Design for Health
  • Design research to support ongoingness, Wallace, J., Duncan, T., Lawson, S., Trueman, J., Montague, K., Carvalho, L., Groot, L., Craig, C., Fisher, H., Koulidou, N. 2020, In: Bereavement Care
  • ReFind: Design, Lived Experience and Ongoingness in Bereavement, Wallace, J., Montague, K., Duncan, T., Cavalho, L., Koulidou, N., Mahoney, J., Morrissey, K., Craig, C., Groot, L., Lawson, S., Olivier, P., Trueman, J., Fisher, H. 25 Apr 2020, Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’20): April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA, ACM
  • Bauhaus Open Studio Teaching Models: Workshop, Exhibition and Publication, Adams, R., Trueman, J. 2 Feb 2019
  • ‘Blueprints’ physical to digital: curation of media to support ongoingness, Wallace, J., Koulidou, N., Duncan, T., Lawson, S., Trueman, J., Craig, C., Fisher, H., Morrissey, K., Montague, K., Welch, D. 22 Apr 2019, Fourth Biennial Research Through Design Conference
  • Learning Power: The Impact of space to inform, perform and reform design scholarship, Adams, R., Trueman, J. 30 Jun 2019, International COnference on Pedagogy and Educational Sciences
  • The Neue Sehen (New Vision) of Future Design Education, Trueman, J., Adams, R. 6 May 2019, The IAFOR Conference on Educational Research and Innovation (ERI2019), IAFOR
  • Decorating Public and Private Spaces: Identity and Pride in a Refugee Camp, Nabil, S., Talhouk, R., Trueman, J., Kirk, D., Bowen, S., Wright, P. 20 Apr 2018, CHI EA '18: Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, ACM
  • Designing with Care: Hospice designs by JDDK Architects, Trueman, J., Holgate, P., Mullan, M. 2017, Building Knowledge: Pathways to Post Occupancy Evaluation, RIBA Publications

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Bauhaus Open Studio 2023 2023
  • Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Bauhaus Open Studio 2021 (online) 2021
  • Oral presentation: Intangible Boundaries 2020
  • Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Bauhaus Open Studio 2020 2020
  • Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: IAFOR Conference on Educational Research and Innovation 2019: Digital Proxemics Workshop 2019
  • Publication Peer-review: The IAFOR Conference on Education Research & Innovation (Event) 2019
  • Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Bauhaus Workshop - Interior Design 2018

  • July 24 2017
  • Interior Design BA (Hons) July 01 2006
  • Medicine MRCPCH(UK) October 01 1997
  • Medicine MBChB(Hons) July 04 1993
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts FRSA 2018
  • Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2017
  • Affilate Member Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) 2016


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