In this issue, we expand the Academia 360° column (introduced in Spring 2021) into a complete collection of essays that illustrate the complicated and multidimensional reality in which design academia resides. This includes addressing head-on the topics of equality, equity, diversity, wellness, and work culture in industrial design education, to name a few. In many ways, this is a continuing of the conversation started in the Winter 2020 issue, Education Interrupted, which attempted to broach such topics as keeping pace with professional practice and the shifting industrial design landscape, dismantling biased institutional norms of “good design,” and creating a system that provides equitable access to quality educational opportunities. At the end of the day, all of these have a direct impact on the quality of education a student receives and on the first impressions a young designer digests at the earliest stages of their career.
The guest editors of this issue aim to amplify voices in and around academia that have not been heard enough in the past. Aziza Cyamani, IDSA, and Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, IDSA, are two of IDSA’s most active educators in the field today. Both are tremendously passionate about their work, and IDSA is thankful to have their efforts reflected here in these pages as a sounding board for our community to reflect upon. We hope this serves as a call to action for both design educators and design practitioners that there is no time like the present to make the changes necessary to ensure industrial design is taught in an inclusive, interdisciplinary, and holistic way.
Guest contributors:
Equality, Equity, and Work Culture in Industrial Design Education by Aziza Cyamani, IDSA and Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, IDSA
The Layers of Diversity by Desi Lentz, S/IDSA
The Happy Department by Mary Anne Beecher, PhD
The Road to Becoming a Polymath Designer by Jung Joo Sohn, IDSA
Mamageddon: A Story of COVID-19, Motherhood, and Academia by Betsy Barnhart, IDSA
Back to the Modeling Board by Kohar Scott, IDSA
Reflections on Academic Belonging: Feeling Valued as a Woman in Design Education by Carolina Gill, IDSA
Featured content:
2021 Scholarship Recipients
2021 Student Merit Award Winners & Finalists
2021 Academic Jury
2021 Education Symposium Event Recap - Breaking Down Barriers: by Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, IDSA
The Changing Face of ID Education: A Roundtable with IDSA Educators
Education Paper - Activism in Design: How to Integrate Elements of Social Movements into the Design Process by Danielle Chen, IDSA
Education Paper - Enhancing Diversity through Design Education with M.O.L.D: Minorities’ Opportunity to Learn Design by Cameron White and Dr. EunSook Kwon, IDSA
Education Paper - Exploring the Gender Stereotype Threat That Women Experience in Team-Based Educational Settings by Bryan Howell, IDSA, Cameron Unson, Judith Westwood, Becky Fuller, Asa Jackson, Rebekah Rawlings, and Michaela Hill
Imagining New Possibilities for the Home by Yoojin Choi
In every issue:
IDSA HQ by Chris Livaudais, IDSA
Beautility by Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA
A Final Thought by Judith Anderson, IDSA
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