Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty

Ellen Christensen, Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design, published the concluding chapter “Seen and Unseen: Mediated Cultural Landscapes of the Everyday on Zoom” in Visual Ecologies of Placemaking (Bloomsbury Visual Arts), edited by Leslie Atzmon and Pamela Stewart. Contributing to a growing discourse in spatial humanities, the collection of essays provides a unique critical insight into how place is shaped through visual and sensory practices. 
 

Prof. Hsiao-Yun Chu has been honored with an Exemplary Teaching Award by the Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching and Learning, in recognition of her outstanding teaching and commitment to student success. "This award means a great deal to me, coming from the University's main unit for supporting innovative and transformative teaching," says Prof. Chu. "Teaching is a lifelong craft that I'm always trying to hone, and I really appreciate being recognized for it."
 

Prof. Hsiao-Yun Chu has been awarded a research travel grant from Duke University to support her research into women's late 19th century craft culture. "The Sallie Bingham Center at Duke University Libraries has world-class collections to support my research," notes Prof. Chu. "Primary sources are the raw materials of design history.  This grant will allow me to consult rare and one-of-a-kind resources to bring new scholarship to light."

Prof. Hsiao-Yun Chu has signed a book contract with MIT press for a manuscript on early woman industrial designers in the United States, mostly focusing on the eastern seaboard, from about 1850-1914. "Women designers have been around since the start of this profession, but their contributions have been obscured by decades of history that favor white, male protagonists," says Chu. "My research illustrates how women were active in design education and design practice decades earlier than has been previously recognized. This is critical in better understanding and representing the history of design in America." Chu acknowledges generous funding from the New York Public Library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and San Francisco State in pursuing this research.

Prof. Hsiao-Yun Chu has received an Affordable Instructional Materials Award to enhance her teaching of DES 356, The History of Design and Technology. "The AIM Award will allow me to create a hands-on library of artifacts from the past, representing different eras and movements that we cover," says Prof. Chu.  "History can often seem abstract; sharing tangible examples engages kinesthetic learning and brings history to life. This strategy incorporates Universal Design for Learning and other pedagogical best practices to make learning more accessible and engaging, without burdening students financially. I am so grateful to AIM for this opportunity." 
 

Students of the Design Strategy MBA of the California College of the Arts invited Associate Professor Omar Sosa-Tzec as a guest speaker, who shared his investigation on delightful customer experiences and delightful design. Sosa-Tzec introduced Design Delight, his conceptual framework that comprises qualities found in delightful user experiences and connects the notion of delight (in design) with living a happy and flourishing life. 

As in every Fall semester, the second group project in Prof Carvalho’s Product Design 2 class focuses on the relationship between design and climate change. Students are challenged to conceive and execute projects looking at improving the health of communities, peoples, and other living beings, while addressing issues of climate justice, within the broader global environmental crisis we face as a society.

To support the development stage of the group’s projects in their attempt to design for desirable futures, Assistant Professor Eugene Young came to the class and presented his creative work in design and illustration to inspire and guide the imagination of the students.

Prof Young’s long-standing career as a world-maker of Afrofuturistic alternative realities provided conceptual and technical food for thought for the class, in a moment they were dwelling on the creation of their original designs. His research and commercial work on sci-fi and fantastical narratives presented an avenue for innovation free of constraints that complemented the more pragmatic, solution-focused requirements of the assignment.

Thank you, Prof Young, for sharing your talent and thoughts with the class! 
 

Eugene Randolph Young, M.F.A. is a graphic designer, illustrator, fine artist and educator. Since 2007, he has served as part-time faculty in City College of San Francisco’s Visual Media Design department. There, he developed new curricula for courses in Adobe Illustrator, storyboarding, visual development for animation, rapid visualization and the recently-launched Practices of Making maker studies course. At Dominican University of California, he taught courses in graphic design, digital painting and graphic novel. At the California College of the Arts, he teaches the first and longest-running open enrollment digital drawing and painting intensive.

He received his Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Illustration from the Academy of Art University, Bachelors of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) with distinction in Graphic Design from the California College of Arts and Crafts and an Associate in Arts (A.A.) degree in Graphic Design from City College of San Francisco.

His professional practice currently focuses on the independent production of original afrofuturism-inspired comics, science fiction and fantasy illustration.

Link to professional website
 

Associate Professor Omar Sosa-Tzec was invited to give a talk and a workshop about delightful design and user experiences at the 2025 Lilly Design Forum. Sosa-Tzec introduced his design delight framework, comprising six experiential qualities: engagement, surprise, liveliness, cuteness, serendipity, and reassurance. Dr. Sosa-Tzec used the fortune cookie to walk the audience through these qualities and how they help shape delightful products and experiences. He also urged designers at Lilly to consider delight as an essential element in living a happy and flourishing life and to recognize that a user's experiences are intertwined and, therefore, the delightfulness of a product or service represents an aim but not a formula. 

Prof. Hsiao-Yun Chu has completed a short term research fellowship at the Library Company of Philadelphia, America's oldest cultural institution. Her research focuses on women designers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "The Library Company's collections for early American history are without par," notes Dr. Chu. "The primary resources preserved here, both printed and visual materials, have been essential to my work. The staff members have been extremely helpful in making my visits pleasant and productive." Dr. Chu further notes Philadelphia's wealth of cultural institutions including museums and libraries which she has also benefited from. 
 

The Library Company was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731 as a subscription-based lending library. It continues to operate as a research and cultural institution, with exhibitions, public events and lectures, and a reading room for researchers. For more information, see https://librarycompany.org/

Alumni from Indiana University's Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering and Media School gathered on the evening of September 10, 2024, to discuss the intersection of media and technology at the GV (Google Ventures) Office in San Francisco. Associate Professor Omar Sosa-Tzec was invited to elaborate on the intersection of AI and design. Dr. Sosa-Tzec, whose research and scholarships centers on delightful design and experiences, acknowledge that AI is useful to design for delight. He emphasized the role of AI as another tool in design—never a substitution of the practice—and the importance of (college) education to develop a level of professional maturity that helps practitioners utilize AI critically and responsibly. 

Participating as panelists as well were Biz Carson, reporter at Bloomberg New, and Kristi Oloffson, Manager of Customer Marketing at Sigma Computing. The panel was moderated by Joanna Millunchick, Dean of the Luddy School, and David Tolchinsky, Dean of the Media School. The host was David Krane, CEO and manager at Google Ventures.