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SUNY Purchase ︎ (DES3240) Design Issues

Queering Design (Education)



This is not absolutely tied to the content the readings are about, in the sense that it is not a Designer talking about Design. In part, I want to show Jack Halberstam talking because he’s amazing; also it’s a not so low-key way of hoping you read Queer Art of Failure (linked below).

I’m choosing to read this as a way to explore the idea of what graphic design education can and “should” be, as a function of how you perceive it currently.

If there’s time / desire we may watch this



Required readings/viewings

Jack Halberstam on Queer Failure, Silly Archives and the Wild︎

You Won’t Believe What This Bizarre Design Cult Eats For Breakfast. The Truth Will Shock U from Elliott Earls’ Studio Practice webseries︎
We Can Listen and Push Back at the Same Time by Kristina Ketola Bore︎

Let’s Talk About Body Reproduction by Nate Pyper︎

We Must Make Queer Praxis Accessible by Ginger Brooks Takahashi︎

We Must Topple the Tropes, Cripple the Canon by Ramon Tejada︎

What Does “Queering Design Education” Actually Look Like in Practice? (Nicole Killian Interview)︎(Also note the list of additional readings there not all of the links work, in the interest of not simply copypasta-ing that stuff, I will just make sure that you are aware of it)

Questions to think about as you read these

  • Is your work being culturally viable (profitable, employable) part of your view of success? How much of this is presupposed?
  • Is having a voice part of your view of success? Do you see those two things as mutual exclusive?
  • How much do you feel this is part of a legacy of heteronormativity, and how much (if at all) does that matter to you?
  • How can we as designers/students/educators reproduce by spreading ideas to different institutions?
  • How valuable is social capital/networking to you?
  • Is it too transactional for you to view it that way (versus community, friendship, whathaveyou)?

Related, but not required readings to help provide some context