top of page

A list of what I have done with my (Professional)life

Gretchen Von Koenig  

Historian • Researcher • Educator 

Jersey City, NJ |gvonkoenig@gmail.com

 

Education  

2021-

PhD Student, History of Capitalism, Technology & Culture University of Delaware. Hagley Scholar 

 

2018

M.A. History of Design & Curatorial Studies, Parsons School of Design, Cooper-Hewitt 

National Design Museum | Thesis: Undergraduate Industrial and Product Design Pedagogy & the History Curriculum: How We Teach History to Practitioners in Training (Advisor: Dr. Margot Bauman) 

 

2015

B.S. Industrial Design & B.A. Theater Arts & Technology,  College of Architecture & 

Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology | Honors: School of Art & Design Medal, 

Highlander Leadership Award 

 

Teaching Experience 

2016 - 2022

Instructor of Design History & Theory Courses

 

Parsons School of Design, The New School. New York City, NY

PGIN 5000  Industrial Design History

PGID 5015  Form, Function & Meaning of Constructed Spaces (Interiors) 1400-2000

PLSD 3500  Advanced Research Seminar: Constructed Environments

PAMT3500  Advanced Research Seminar: Art & Design Practice

 

College of Architecture & Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology. Newark, NJ

INT 310 History of Furniture

AD 490 History of Industrial Design

ID 390 Ethnographic & Market Research for Industrial Design

ARCH 390 Ethnographic Research for Architectural Design

AD 110 Communication in Art & Design

 

Michael Graves School of Design, Kean University. Union, NJ

AD 101 World History of Design: Pre History to Industrial Revolution

IND 300 History of Industrial Design 1850-2010

 

School of Art & Design, Montclair State University

PLVS 2000  History of Product Design 

 

2016-2018

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Parsons School of Design 

History of Modern Design, 1850-2000, Intro to Design Studies,

Intro to Visual Culture, Post-Election America

 

Professional Experience 2022

2022

Editorial Assistant for Academic Programs, Winterthur Portfolio

Manuscript & Book Review Editorial Assistance

Research Assistant, University of Delaware Anti-Racism Initiative, Legacies of Dispossession 

& Enslavement Committee. February - June 2022. 

 

2021

Editor, Dense Magazine. Design Shed, 501c3

Print publication that explores the relationship between the built environment and New Jersey,  the densest state in the US. Dense is  operated by DesignShed, a Montclair NJ based non-profit that aims to advance the awareness of design through programming and grantmaking. 

 

2019-22

Deputy Director & Design Director, Art Fair 14c, Jersey City, NJ. Art Fair 14C, 501c3

 

2019-2021

Curator & Grant Specialist, Van Wagenen House (NRHP, 2006) Office of Cultural Affairs, 

City of Jersey City. COVID response April ‘20-August ‘20, managing all covid test results.

Grant Portfolio: Action Grant (New Jersey Council of the Humanities ),  Hudson Co. 

History Program (Hudson Co.Office of Tourism & Culture ), Cooperative Marketing Grant (NJ Tourism)

Curatorial work featured in New York Times: “More of Collector’s Dutch and British Objects to Go to Museums”. Eve Kahn, Art & Design Section, Jan 31, 2020. 

 

2017 - 19

Academic Advisor for BFA Product Design, Parsons School of Design

 

2018 - 20 Peer Reviewer

Council of Readers for College Arts Association - Conference Sessions

National Conference on the Beginning Design Student - Conference Sessions

Plots Journal of Design Studies - Journal Article Submissions  

 

2017

Research Assistant to Caroline Dionne, Towards a Theory of Participatory Design Methods

 

2016- 17

Contributor on Design Education, Metropolis Magazine. Selected Writings: 

How to Get More Minority Students in Architecture? Look to 1968

At Cooper Hewitt, Socially Responsible Design Takes Center Stage

RISD Students Disrupt the Gendered Nature of Wearable Tech

Diversity Champions: 8 Schools That Aren’t Just Paying Lip Service To Diversity 

College for Creative Studies’ New MFA Pairs Design with Industry 

The New School’s New Hire Asserts Design’s Role in the Refugee Crisis

SCI-Arc Launches Scholarship for L.A. Public School Students

Book Review, David Brody’s Housekeeping by Design (Print only)

 

2016-17

Contributor on Design, TL Magazine 

 

2015

Curatorial Intern, Brooklyn Museum, Department of Decorative Arts, Brooklyn, NY. 

 

2012-15

Archival Catalogger, Jim Wise Theater Archive, Newark NJ

 

2012-13

Digital Researcher, Society of Architectural Historians, New York NY. Project 

SAH Archpedia, University of Pennsylvania. Under supervision of Dr. Gabrielle Esperdy

 

Academic Presentations

2022

Design History Society, Paper Titled: “American Public Space and Capitalism: A Political 

Reading of Rest Stop Interior Design 1950-1970,” Session Moderated by Fredie Flore, session titled: “Commercial Transformations of Interiors,” Izmir, Turkey Sep 8-10, 2022.

 

2021

College Art Association, Co-Chair Towards a Socialist History of US Design: The Material Culture of Progressive Movements with Rachel Hunnicutt, New York, Feb 12-15. Presenters: Prof. Amanda Horton (U. of Central Oklahoma), Alternative Movie Posters: An Examination of Progressive Practice in Film Poster Design. Jessica Fletcher (CUNY), The District Health Center in New York City: From "Wall Street's Back Yard" to City-Wide Program (1913-1937). Prof. Danielle Aubert (Wayne State), Contemporary Graphic Design on the Left. J. Dakota Brown (SAIC), Phototypesetting and the "Life-Cycle" of Socialism. Ellen Christen and Christopher Cote (San Francisco State), Common Goods: Everyday Objects in New Rituals of Care During the Covid-19 Pandemic.

 

2020

College Art Association, Co-Chair Beyond the Bauhaus: Histories of American Design 

Education with Colin Fanning, Chicago, Feb 12-15. Presenters: Prof. Holly Gore (UC Berkeley), Cooperative Projects: The Socially-Engaged Classroom of  Molly Gregory. Dr. Tim Stott (Dublin School of Creative Arts), Sim Van der Ryn’s Outlaw Building. PJ Carlino (BU), De-centering the Bauhaus: Industrial Design Education. Prof. Brockett Horne (MICA), Teaching Taste through Typography.

 

2019

Design History Society “American Industry & Design Schools: Tracing Influence from 

Enterprise to Education” School of Art, Design and Social Sciences Northumbria University Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Sep 8-10. 

 

College Art Association, Session Co-Chair Teaching Design Studies: Practice, Methods, & 

Resources, with Dr. Carla Cesare, New York, Feb 14. Presenters: Claudia Marina (Parsons), Ephemeral Materiality: Problematizing Design, Dr. Kjetil Fallan (U. of Oslo), Making Design History Matter. Prof. Keren Ben-Horin and Sarah C. Byrd (FIT),  Teaching the Unpredictable: Co-Teaching in Museum Practicum Courses. Prof. Kenneth Segal & Dr. J. Ventura (Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem), Designing Cultural Objects: Cultural Design Anthropology as Innovation in the Classroom.

Panelist: Ellen Lupton (Cooper Hewitt), Dr. David Raizman (Drexel University)

 

National Conference on the Beginning Design Student  “History As Context: Case Study on Activating History Classroom”  University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 12-14. 

 

2018

Chicago Design: Histories and Narratives, Questions and Methods “Chicago and the 

Precedent  Of Design Education: Pedagogy, Curricula, and Capitalist Influences” School of the Art Institute of Chicago, November 8-10.

 

National Conference on the Beginning Design Student  “Iciting Criticality in Design Education: How We Teach History to Product Design Students”  University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 1-3. 

 

2017

Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association, “Bauhaus: A Capitalist Fetish Beyond Socialist 

Intentions & Historical Representations”, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 2017

 

Parsons Graduate Symposium, “Business Practices of the Bauhaus & The Bard Textbook”, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY May 4-6

 

2016

Parsons Graduate Symposium Spring 2016 “Bruce Rogers & Modernism: How Euclid 

Changed His Aesthetic”, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY May3-4

 

Guest Lectures & Interviews

2022

"Rest Stops as Sites of Politics," Guest Lectuer for Parsons-wide course Intro to Design Studies. 

 

2020

The Future of Design Education, Interviewed by Renee Collins for Montclair Design Week

 

Design Education & Industry, Guest Lecturer at Pratt Institute MFA Industrial Design 

 

2019

Guest Crit at Parsons Capstone Review, Senior Showcase, Parsons School of Design

 

 

Academic Publications

2018

Inciting Criticality in Design Education: How We Teach History to Product Design 

Students. University of Cincinnati, vol. 34 no. 1 (2018): The 34th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student. Published Sep. 2018.

 

 

Fellowships, Awards & Press

2022

Research Assistantship, University of Delaware Anti Racism Initiative, Committee of 

Enslavement & Dispossession 

 

2020

Health Hero for the City of Jersey City for Covid response on managing testing 

sites and constituent results. Managed results for all senior citizen housing. 

 

2020

“More of Collector’s Dutch and British Objects to Go to Museums”,  New York Times feature 

on curatorial efforts at the Van Wagenen House, Gretchen Von Koenig interviewed by author Eve Kahn, Art & Design section, Jan 31, 2020. 

 

2019

Parsons Part-Time Faculty Development Grant, Design History Society

 

2018

Research Development Stipend, Office of Student Success, Parsons School of Design

 

2015-18

Parsons Dean Scholarship

 

2016-17

National Art Dealers’ Association Funding Recipient - Smithsonian Scholarship

 

2015-16

Smithsonian Institute Fellow

 

2015

School of Art & Design Medal, College of Architecture and Design, NJIT.

 

2014

Undergraduate Presidential Leadership Award, NJIT.

 

2014

Student Excellence Award - Top Junior Industrial Design Student, College of Arch & Design

 

 

Professional Committee & Leadership 

2021

Jersey City Arts Council 501c3, Grants committee 

 

2018-20

Jersey City Arts Council (501c3), Co-Chair Architecture & Design Committee 

Exhibition: Urban Crossroads, Hudson County Community College

 

2018-17

Co-Chair - Assessment Committee for Institutional Effectiveness

Faculty Advisor, IDSA Student Chapter, Parsons School of Design 

Faculty Advisor, Alpha Rho Chi, New Jersey Institute of Technology 

Committee Member - Assessment Committee for Academic Advising Surveys 

Committee Member - Careers Committee for Academic Advising

 

2017

ADHT Graduate Symposium Organizer

 

Design Practice, Press & Awards

2019-2022

Design Director for Art Fair 14C, 501c3

Graphic Identity, Fair Infrastrucutre Design & Layout, Fair Maps and Apparel

Marketing Assets for artnet, NYTimes, NJ.com, Hyperallergic & social media platforms and website 

2016

Seed Packet Design selected for GROWTH Exhibition, NYCxDesign, Astor Place

Sponsored by AmDC, The Sill & NYC Department of Design & Construction. 

Seed Packets, collaboration with artist Allison Underwood.

 

2014-16

Studio Manager, Kiel Mead Designs, Brooklyn NY

Sales Representative, American Design Club, Brooklyn NY

Helped organize public shows for NYCxDesign events, public shows in Astor Place, Times Square and in various Design shows such as Wanted Design, ArchDigest Show & NYNow. 

 

2012-15

Graphic Designer, Jim Wise Theater, Newark NJ

 

2014

Pillow Design, Cheaper than the Real Thing, selected for AmDC Field Day Exhibition at 

Wanted Design @ Industry City

 

2014

Rubber Ottoman, featured in DesignMilks Best in Show for ICFF 2014 

 

2013

Design Intern, WorkHorse Design, Set design for Radiolab live show Apocalyptical

Design Intern, POD Design, Principle Brooks Atwood

 

2012

Graphic Designer, Newark Downtown District, Special Improvement District

  

Professional Development / Attended Conferences 

2019

American Association of State & Local Histories, Co-Convened by Sites of Conscious, 

Philadelphia, PA

2018

Assessment Institute, National Association of Academic Advising, Daytona Beach, FL

2016

Mid Atlantic Popular Culture Association Conference, Atlantic City, NJ

 

Professional Membership Past & Current:

College Art Association of America

Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design

Design Research Society 

Industrial Designers Society of America

Design History Society

bottom of page