teaching

College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

Research, Design, Critique

This course approaches research as a source of inspiration and critical inquiry for craftspeople. The class is designed for students in the Crafts department (specializing in textiles, glass, metals, ceramic, or wood furniture) but is also open to other art and design majors. After becoming acquainted with various types of scholarly research, students apply it to their creative practice. Students learn to define a research area, develop research questions, identify appropriate research methods, and locate research materials. They gather, study, synthesize, and respond to a wide variety of material, including objects, images, sites, people, and texts. Coursework also provides students with the acumen to critique contemporary art, craft, and design.

History of Modern Design

This course examines objects and images from the seventeenth century to present day, with a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Western Europe and the United States. Subject matter includes dress, textiles, furniture, interiors, industrial design, transportation design, graphics, and architecture. Students study a range of material and visual culture, from high-end custom design to commercial products and ephemera. Design is considered in historical contexts, with emphasis placed on the systems in which design is enmeshed and the connections between design and the people involved in its production, dissemination, and use. Seminars establish themes that recur throughout history, aiming to highlight the relevance of history for contemporary design practice. 

History of Craft

This course surveys major developments in craft traditions, from antiquity to the 1970s, and their impact on today’s craft, craftsperson, and culture. Students learn the social, technological, economic, cultural, and political contexts that have shaped the organization of craft production as well as views towards the work. While seminars focus on Western Europe and the United States, the purview of the course is broadened through research projects on global and indigenous subjects of students’ choosing.

Materials Lab I (graduate)

In this course, students study various material groups—including textiles, wood, ceramics, glass, metals, stone, plastics, and composites—and conduct a series of experiments aimed at material innovation. After establishing a foundational knowledge of the physical properties, technical processes, and intellectual frameworks of the material groups in the past and today, students execute projects that probe their physical and conceptual potential. The course is based on the following assumptions: innovation does not happen in a vacuum, but rather is a response to what already exists in the world; materials are not only functional and aesthetic, but also bear meaning. Materials Lab I therefore engages history, traditions, and context as springboards for innovation.

Wayne State University, Detroit, MI

Design Process

In this course, students learn a variety of design process methods that can be applied across the fields of fashion design, industrial design, interior design, and graphic design. Students work independently and collaboratively on three major projects completed over the semester. Aiming to cultivate both critical thinking skills and creative design skills, each project comprises exercises, readings, discussions, presentations, and critiques. The course provides students with a holistic understanding of design, from ideation, research, brand strategy, identity development, to product positioning.

Parsons School of Design, New York, NY

Advanced Research Seminar—Fashion

This course encourages the use of research in the field of fashion design. Required for junior undergraduates, Advanced Research Seminar grounds students’ creative practice in broader historical and theoretical frameworks. Students learn various types of research using objects, images, people, texts, and environments. Through seminars, discussions, individual conferences, readings, and writing assignments, students become proficient in research methods that can be applied to their senior theses the following year.

Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

History of Modern Design

This course examines the decorative arts and design in Europe and the United States with a focus on the nineteenth century to present day. Subject matter includes furniture, household objects, industrial design, textiles, fashion, graphics, and digital design. Through these artifacts, students study how people lived in different times and places and gain a deeper understanding of the material and visual world we now reside in. Emphasis is placed on the role that these artifacts played in the lives of the people who designed, manufactured, and used them and their intimate connection to the political, economic, and social conditions that provide their historical context. 

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Seminar in Design: History of Graphic Design

This course surveys the history of graphic design from the advent of the printing press to present day, with a focus on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through readings, lectures, research, and presentations, students investigate the ways that cultural, political, and economic factors have shaped design in the past. By examining the development of graphic design, students are able to situate their practice within the design discourse of today.