Organized by Assistant Professor Susan Yelavich, this lecture series examines the capacities of design and art to re-shape cultural values in response to the radical changes brought about by globalization. This series views the cultural cross-fertilizations and collisions that characterize global flows as sources of new understandings, not just as catalysts for conflict. In addition to short lectures on relevant theory by Professor Yelavich, the course features guest speakers whose design and art practices take on critical issues of social and environmental sustainability, national and postnational identities, community-driven design, and the affects of technology on social relations.
January 26
Introduction to Global Issues: Culture As State and State of Mind
Susan Yelavich, Assistant Professor, School of Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons The New School for Design
February 1
Capacities of Design and Culture
Clive Dilnot, Professor of Design Studies, School of Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons The New School for Design
February 8
Border Urbanism: Strategies of Surveillance, Tactics of Encroachment
Teddy Cruz, Principal, Estudio Teddy Cruz; Artist in Public Culture/Urban Space, Visual Arts Department, UC San Diego
February 15
Scale and Scalability
Jamer Hunt, Associate Professor and Director, MFA Transciplinary Design, School of Design Strategies, Parsons The New School for Design
March 1
Design Away
Cameron Tonkinwise, Associate Dean for Sustainability, Parsons The New School for Design
March 22
Street Talk
Susan Yelavich, Assistant Professor, and Julia Dault, Artist and Instructor, School of Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons The New School for Design
March 29
Scenes from Ghana
Mabel O. Wilson, Associate Professor of Architecture, Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, Columbia University; principal, KW:a
April 5
Conditions of Self-Regulated Urbanity
Ivan Kucina, University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture
April 12
Film: Examined Life
A film by Astra Taylor, featuring Kwame Anthony Appiah, Judith Butler, Peter Singer, Cornel West, among other philosophers
April 19
Culture, Memory, and Contemporary Design
Alper Böler, Furniture and Product Designer; Principal, Alper Böler Design, Istanbul
April 26
Film: Notebook on Cities and Clothes
A film by Wim Wenders, featuring Yohji Yamamoto
May 3
Petrified Curtains, Animate Architextiles
Susan Yelavich, Assistant Professor, School of Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons The New School for Design
