Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty

Associate Professor Omar Sosa-Tzec, along with other design faculty in the United States, participated in the first AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC) Design and Writing Fellowship in 2022. The AIGA DEC published a book comprising the visual essays developed by these scholars during this fellowship, all available at https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.14495980.

Prof. Sosa-Tzec's essay (starting on page 249 in the book) comprises sketchnotes where he explores the idea of a visual essay and humanistic approaches to develop and peer-review it. Below is one of Prof. Sosa-Tzec's sketchnotes (page 253), where he explores and defines the visual essay as a multimodal argument and research-through-design outcome.

Prof. Hsiao-Yun Chu returned to Sichuan University (SCU) in Chengdu, China to teach a short course on Design and Society to 140 students in a variety of majors as part og SCU's University Immersion Program. "It is a pleasure and an honor to be invited back to this prestigious school," notes Prof. Chu. "Teaching and learning across languages and cultures can provide new opportunities, insights, and understandings, not only for students but also for myself. I would especially like to thank my hosts Prof. Zhao Chengqing and Prof. Lu Miao in the Arts College for their warm welcome, as well as my student assistants Alyssa and Aura who kept everything running smoothly. Chengdu is a wonderful place to visit--for the food, for the pandas, but most of all for the people."

Sichuan University is a highly respected research institution serving almost 50,000 students, and is the top ranked university in Southwestern China, comprising over 30 colleges or schools in a wide variety of disciplines.

Assistant Professors Christensen and Hussaini presented together at the AIGA DEC Lens 2023 Symposium in New York City, as part of the AIGA National Design Conference. The AIGA DEC hosted Lens as a one-day symposium featuring peer-reviewed papers, panels, posters, and other work from educators, graduate students, and industry professionals that address ideas and topics connected to the theme LENS. Christensen and Hussaini introduced their work integrating a social justice lens into curricular development for visual communication design courses, specifically in relation to multimodal storytelling for two courses: the experimental Visual Storytelling elective class Christensen has introduced, and Research and Writing in Design, the core major requirement course Hussaini has re-envisioned. The presentation shared best practices formulated from these two case studies for pedagogical approaches to create politically engaged, community-focused classroom learning communities. 

The AIGA DEC Symposium Lens 2023 took place this October 12 in New York City, within the AIGA National Conference. Assistant Professor Omar Sosa-Tzec participated in the panel "Making Space for Graphic Designers as Visual Essayists." In this panel, Dr. Sosa-Tzec discussed the notion of the visual essay as a multimodal argument and outcome of research-through-design and the application of poetics, semiotics, rhetoric, and aesthetics as critical approaches to peer-review the visual essay in graphic design academia. Sosa-Tzec also discussed sketchnoting as a form of pre-writing and content for visual essays. Accompanying Dr. Sosa-Tzec were Patricia Childers (CUNY/CityTech/Pratt), Heather Corcoran (Washington University in St. Louis), and Joshua Unikel (University of Houston). All the professors were AIGA DEC Design + Writing Fellowship members in 2022. This panel and their work from the fellowship seek to legitimize the visual essay as a research product in graphic design academia and pluralize and diversify its voices. 

Prof. Hsiao-Yun Chu presented her current research entitled "Women's Work: Design on Display at the Centennial Fair" at the 2023 Design History Society Annual Conference in Matosinhos, Portugal. Her work illuminates the contributions of women designers and organizers to the 1876 Centennial Fair in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania--the first world's fair in which women's work was shown in its own pavilion. 

Prof. Chu comments, "Design history is a small and rather unique field as distinct from art history or the history of science and technology in general. It's a rare treat to experience the current research of others in this field who are expanding the scope and methods of this discipline in real time."

Prof. Hsiao-Yun Chu has taught a short course on Design and Society as part of Sichuan University's University Immersion Program, which brings together students with faculty from around the world, encouraging global awareness and intercultural communication. "I'm extremely grateful to Sichuan University, to Prof. Dr. Zhao Chengqing for his warm invitation as well as to Dr. Gao Ran and the rest of the faculty for welcoming me," says Prof. Chu. "Although I was invited to teach the students about design, I myself learned so much about the Chinese language and the rich cultural history of Chengdu during my stay." Sichuan University is one of China's most prestigious universities, serving about 50,000 students across many disciplines. Prof. Chu has been teaching at the Arts College of Sichuan University.

Assistant Professor Sosa-Tzec will present an exploratory paper on delightful visualizations of screen time for smartphones at the 10th Nordic Design Research Society (Nordes) Conference, which will take place in Norrköping, Sweden. This paper focuses on how to help smartphone users to attain digital wellbeing–that is, a balanced relationship with technology–through unconventional, delightful screen time visualizations. This exploratory work applies Design Delight–Prof. Sosa-Tzec's experiential framework to design for a happy and flourishing life–and sketching to conceptualize such visualizations. Through this paper, Prof. Sosa-Tzec argues that delight (in relation to digital well-being products and experiences) plays an important role in helping people attain digital wellbeing. Moreover, he urges designers to recognize sketching as a valuable activity concerning research through design.

The paper is available in the digital proceedings of the Nordes 2023 conference, published in the Design Research Society Digital Library.  

Assistant Professor Christensen will be presenting her paper "Extending the Visual Storytelling Narrative Arc through Augmented Reality" at the Digitally Engaged Learning (DEL) 2023 Conference. For over fifteen years, DEL has been a place to share, explore, and evolve our digitally engaged teaching and learning in art and design higher education. The theme of the 2023 conference is "Realities and Futures."

September 21–22, 2023
Online from: University of the Arts London

Image designed by: Yixin Cai

Assistant Professor Christensen will be presenting her paper "Spatial Narratives of the City: Growing the Local Living Archive through Student Story Mapping" at the 18th annual UCDA Design Education Summit. The 18th annual UCDA Design Education Summit is a national summit for design educators, chairs, and students, and continues an ongoing community created specifically for graphic design educators with opportunities for professional participation and development.
 

The 2023 UCDA Design Education Summit: SAME/DIFFERENCE, will highlight research and pedagogical approaches that explore accessibility, disability justice, belonging, and inclusivity toward integrative systemic change.
 

May 22–23 
Bowling Green State University (BGSU)
Bowling Green, Ohio
https://www.ucda.com/events/120/

Prof. Hsiao-Yun Chu has contributed an chapter to Noguchi and Greece, Greece and Noguchi.  Designer and sculptor Isamu Noguchi  (1904–88) visited Greece numerous times over the course of his career. This two-volume set explores the influence of Greek culture-- and Noguchi's engagement with world cultures more broadly-- on his work. This set is an extension of a research and exhibition project initiated by Objects of Common Interest with the Noguchi Museum in New York.