A groundbreaking and richly illustrated examination of race in design from 1800 to today, featuring original essays from leading curators, scholars, and designers
How do the social structures of race influence the designed world and the disciplines through which we study them? Featuring newly commissioned contributions by thirty-two curators, scholars, and designers, this wide-ranging anthology explores race and design through objects, clothing, buildings, and interior spaces. It includes critical essays, historical case studies, first-person narratives, interviews, and discussions about researching and teaching design history. These pieces critique design as a tool of power and highlight design’s use in acts of resistance and its capacity for cultural affirmation and emotional connection. Race in Design History demonstrates how the history of design becomes deeper and more expansive when it engages with Black, Asian, and Latinx identities and with constructions of whiteness and indigeneity. The result underscores the powerful ways design shapes our world and how we understand our place in it.
The book features four sections:
- The Performance of Race Through Design
- Design and the Spatialization of Race
- Objects and Ornament as Signifiers of Race
- Identity at the Intersection of Design History Practice
Contributors include Karen R. Baker • Audrey G. Bennett • Leticia M. Brown • Mirjam Brusius • Diana Budds • Stephen Burks • PJ Carlino • Sarah Cheang • Adrienne L. Childs • Sarah H. Cho • Christina L. De León • Chris Dingwall • Javier Gimeno-Martínez • Imogen Hart • Sophie Higgerson • Camara Dia Holloway • Amanda Horton • Katie Irani • Ladi’Sasha Jones • Craig Lee • Zenia Malmer • Cheryl D. Miller • Lesley-Ann Noel • Victoria Rose Pass • John Potvin • Livia Rezende • Jennifer Rittner • Marie Saldaña • Tiana Webb-Evans • Folayemi Wilson
