teaching Experience - Professor of record
Parsons School of Design - School of Constructed Environments, Hillier College of Architecture & Design (NJIT), Michael Graves School of Design (Kean University), Montclair State University - Department of Art & Design.
GRADUATE COURSES
This course gives students a broad look at the history of industrial and product design throughout time, focusing on design following the Industrial Revolution. This class will review some of the many historical fields that intersect with design history, where designers and non designers are entangled with the complex history of objects. This seminar encourages students to develop a critical future-oriented understanding of the history of product and industrial design through many lenses, including socio-technological innovation, economics, business, ethics, gender, scale of production, efficiency, labor, human-centered design, systems thinking, ecological impact, engineering, science, and cultural expression. We will focus on analyzing and the greater role objects play in shaping our social and cultural environments and raising critical questions about the relationships between design, designers and the industrialized world. Class will be conducted in a lecture-discussion format. Research projects and exercises as well as home research assignments will be included. I hope this class becomes a space to question whose history is presented, what exactly constitutes a history of objects and how various aspects of cultural, racial, socio-economic, and gendered identities play out in the design, use and access to objects throughout time
FORM, FUNCTION, AND MEANING OF CONSTRUCTED SPACES FROM THE 15TH TO THE 20TH Centuries | PGID 5105 (interior Design history survey)
Parsons, School for Design
Required, MFA Interior Design
Fall 2019, Fall 2020
The study of Interiors is a rich field that can provide us with a sense of broad social, political, and cultural perspectives. Yet interiors are still largely unexplored as a historical field of study, partly because they are essentially ephemeral and hard to trace, mostly lacking the kinds of documents (plans, sections, photographs, other historical records), that architectural history relies on. This class aims to re-think the study of interiors: rather than conceiving interiors as merely the “empty” spaces contained by architecture, we will suggest a much broader understanding of interiors, by seeking new analytic tools that may help us explore what interiors are, have been, and increasingly will be. Our approach, as evidenced through the topics we will study ---such as modernity, privacy, comfort, domesticity, gender, sustainability--- addresses Interior Design as a socially relevant practice that is closely in step with daily life and local cultures.
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
Advanced Research Seminar: Constructed Environments
PLSD 3500 | Parsons, School for Design
Required, Architecture, Interior Design & Product Design 4th yr.
Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020
Advanced Research Seminar is a course in Art and Design History and Theory that emphasizes advanced research and writing skills in the discipline and literature of the art, design and architecture fields. The course, required for most Parsons students, will prepare students for a thesis or capstone project in the fourth year and ground their art, design and architecture practice in the context of a broader historical and theoretical framework. The class builds on material and skills introduced in the required first-year Objects as History and Integrative Seminar 2 courses and in the second-year history and theory classes. Providing historical context and advanced critical and research methodologies in sections dedicated to art and design practice, the constructed environment, fashion, and visual culture, the instructor will, through lectures, discussions, conferences, readings, and first-hand study of objects and environments guide students through significant research and writing projects. The Constructed Environments inflection presents an opportunity to investigate how the built environment is created through the complex interaction of historical, cultural, social, material, and economic forces. How does the built environment shape our contexts and, by extension, our understanding? What potential lies in an interior's design? How does a product instruct a user? When does a building determine action? Students will explore the interconnectedness of large-scale thinking with on-the-ground user experience to explore the complexity of a designer's engagement.
History of Industrial Design
AD 490 | New Jersey Institute of Technology
Elective, Upper Level Art & Design Elective
Spring 2018, Spring 2020
ID 3310 | Michael Graves School of Design
Required, Industrial Design 3rd yr.
Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020
This survey of western industrial design history and theory gives students a broad overview of design practice, stylistic movements and societal implications related to the design of objects following the Industrial Revolution. This seminar style course will explore issues of class, race, globalization, innovation, sustainability and national identity through industrial design history and theory. We will focus on analyzing and the greater role objects play in shaping our environments, informing social interactions, as well as other humanistic inquiries into the problematic relationships between design, designers and the industrialized world. This course is focused on theory and history and is assessed through a variety of projects based on critical designed projects.
History of Furniture
INT 310, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Required, Interior Design 3rd yr.
Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019
Survey course studying the history and theory of furniture and interior design from 1850 to the present day, primarily focused in Western cultures. It will focus on the study of stylistic changes as they respond to social, political and technological revolutions. Students will analyze furniture in terms of style, aesthetic intent, construction and materials, ergonomics, universal/ barrier-free accessibility, sustainability, and technology. Major stylistic movements will be discussed. Class will be conducted on a lecture-discussion format. In- class team projects and exercises as well as home research assignments will be included.
Advanced Research Seminar: Art + Design Practice
PLHT 3500 | Parsons, School for Design
Required, Fine Arts, Photography &
Illustration 4th yr.
Spring 2019
Advanced Research Seminar is a that emphasizes advanced research and writing skills in the discipline and literature of the art, design and architecture fields. The course, required for Parsons students, will prepare students for a thesis or capstone project in the fourth year and ground their art, design and architecture practice in the context of a broader historical and theoretical framework. The class builds on material and skills introduced in the required first-year Objects as History and Integrative Seminar 2 courses and in the second-year history and theory classes. Providing historical context and advanced critical and research methodologies in sections dedicated to art and design practice, the constructed environment, fashion, and visual culture, the instructor will, through lectures, discussions, conferences, readings, and first-hand study of objects and environments guide students through significant research and writing projects. The Art and Design Practice inflection is an opportunity to conduct and share research findings as cross-disciplinary group. Open to all disciplines within Parsons, this inflection will respond to differences in the various art and design fields as a jumping-off place for further defining the parameters and interests of one’s individual research. How can the discourses and practices of one field productively shift those of another? What is the value of disciplinary boundaries, and alternately, what happens when we blur these boundaries? Exposure to other disciplines can be an invitation to explore new approaches, an opportunity to explore assumptions we take for granted inside our field, or a chance to clarify, articulate and deepen our own disciplinary commitments.
Ethnographic & Market Research for Design Process
ID 310, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Required, Industrial Design 3rd yr.
Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Special ARCH Elective Spring 2019
The focus this course is to explore how various qualitative and quantitative methods can be used to gather insights that can be used to shape new products, add value to existing products or give insight to yet unexplored products or market opportunities. This course is designed to provide students with an overview of ethnographic and marketing research methodologies that can be applied to design research. We will begin by developing a general understanding of Ethnography as a field and a science in it’s own right, then transition into how designers can/do use ethnographic research in the design process. What kind of data do I need for the design process? Who are my users? How can data be gathered? How can it be applied to the design process? Classroom activities focus on iterative & critical fieldwork, as well as seminar-style discussions on the ethics, practice & implementation of ethnographic methods in design and related topics such as design & anthropology, co-creation, and participatory research methods.
Over the course of the semester, various methodologies will be explored and conducted as a means to lend an objective understanding of user needs, goal, motivations and frustrations. This will occur through deep observation, interviews and video projects. Various documentation deliverables will be required as well.
Communication in Art &
Design: Digital Media
AD 112, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Required, First Year all Design Majors
Spring 2017
The course introduces students to the language and conventions of describing space, form, and order using digital media. Through a series of discrete creative exercises, students will be exposed to a variety of software, processes, and concepts utilized in design communication.