Abstract
Balancing design curricula with social responsibility has been my focus since I started teaching at Rutgers University-Newark (RU-N) in 2012. Expanding the discourse to integrate social advocacy within design education is not new, but what grants me a unique working experience is context: a changing tide at RU-N and its commitment to restoring relationships with its city, in tandem with Newark’s special time of revitalization. At RU-N, our Graphic Design program is a resident partner of Express Newark (EN), a university-community collaboratory rooted in creative practice, conceived to fulfill the school’s public mission to build a greater Newark. Within this framework, my journey towards tenure and promotion concentrates on publicly engaged design practice and education. By working in a place co-owned with community, a design-sense is forged. It allows students to witness decentralization of power, and experience a nuanced distinction between visually representing a social concern and co-building around it, to make issues more visible and facilitate action. It establishes deep networks of trust, and allows our program to become a (design) resource to heal and empower the city of Newark. Through various case studies, I exhibit my experience with publicly engaged design education as an aspirational model for design pedagogy, by self-examining the veracity of our collaborations, the scale of engagement, terms of commitment and action at which our design interventions have, or could make change happen— at a project, system, and/or cultural level— with (not for) our city.
Presenters
Chantal FischzangAssistant Professor, Arts, Culture & Media — Graphic Design Program, Rutgers University-Newark, New Jersey, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2020 Special Focus - Advocacy in Design: Engagement, Commitment, and Action
KEYWORDS
Publicly Engaged Scholarship; Design Pedagogy; Collaboration; Co-Building; Advocacy; Social Responsibility
