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Penny Sparke is a Professor of Design History at Kingston University and the Director of the Modern Interiors Research Centre. She studied French Literature at the University of Sussex from 1967-1971 and between 1972 and 1975 undertook research for her PhD in the History of Design at Brighton Polytechnic. She subsequently developed courses in, and taught, the History of Design at Brighton Polytechnic (1975-1982) and the Royal College of Art (1982-1999).

From 1999 to 2005 she was Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design & Music at Kingston University and from 2005 to 2014 she was Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise). She has also participated in conferences, given keynote addresses, been a member of journal editorial boards, curated exhibitions, delivered visiting lectures, broadcast and published in the field of Design History both nationally and internationally.

Her most important publications include An Introduction to Design and Culture, 1900 to the present (1986 and 2004); _Design in Context _(1987); _Electrical Appliances _(1988); _Italian Design from 1860 to the present _(1989); _The Plastics Age _(1990); _As Long as It's Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste _(1995); _Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration _(2005); and _The Modern Interior _(2008). She has also supervised and examined many PhDs in her subject.