Pedagogy and Education at the Seam of Anthropology and Design
Two presentations by Bibiana Serpa and Cherry-Ann Morgan discuss the intersections of design and anthropology in education—where methodologies, ways of knowing, and pedagogical practices converge, challenge, and transform one another.
Design education and anthropological training have both been shaped by evolving critical discourses, yet they remain largely enclosed within their own disciplinary logics. What happens when they are brought into conversation—not as a simple exchange, but as a confrontation, a negotiation, a reshaping of pedagogical possibilities?
Can anthropology’s reflexivity unsettle the entrenched hierarchies of design pedagogy? Can design’s generative, practice-based methods open anthropology to new ways of engaging with knowledge production? And how do both disciplines reckon with the tensions between institutional constraints, market pressures, and the promise of transformative learning?
The material and visual production of social movements is rarely recognized as an object of study by design or anthropology. Even so, these collectives continue inventing ways of life, re-signifying objects, narratives, and the struggle. What can everyday objects teach us about feminist resistance across time, and about design itself? We need to revisit design from its margins: the domestic spaces, women’s (and feminist) knowledge, and practices often made invisible by the dominant narratives of the discipline. Using the history of the struggle for reproductive justice in Latin America as a guiding thread, this talk proposes to learn from the grassroots—from women’s experiences, struggles, and commonplace objects—to pave the way for a design more committed to social justice, situated knowledge, and concrete transformations.
Bibiana Oliveira Serpa (she/her) is a Brazilian design researcher, a popular educator, and a feminist activist. She has experience in participatory projects and design for community emancipation in various locations throughout Latin America. Her research associates participatory and critical design approaches to politicization actions within social movements. She is an active member of the Articulação de Mulheres Brasileiras, a co-founder of the Design and Oppression Network, and a co-editor of the International Journal of Engineering, Social Justice and Peace.
This presentation explores the role of design in craft as a vessel for tradition and memory, examining how material culture preserves and reinterprets heritage. Through the case study of artisanal practices in Trinidad Carnival, Cherry-Ann will uncover how craft embodies ancestral knowledge, identities, and evolving cultural narratives. The discussion highlights the tension between preservation and innovation, and authenticity and representation as we consider how contemporary designers engage with traditional techniques to create new meanings, shaping speculative visions that can inform more inclusive and imaginative futures. By bridging past and present, craft-based design fosters continuity, adaptation, and storytelling, ensuring that cultural memories remain dynamic and relevant in an ever-changing world.
Cherry-Ann Morgan (she/her) is a post-colonial, pan-African hybrid ethnographic creator using art/design, research, and writing as outlets. Cherry grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and now lives in Zurich. She completed her MA in Design at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and now works as a research assistant in ZHdK’s Department of Design, focusing on design history and theory. In her artistic practice, she employs storytelling and design to counteract stereotypes and discriminatory narratives through a feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial lens. Cherry’s research focuses on deconstructing the embedded Eurocentric colonial gaze in design education by exploring it through Indigenous and ancestral creative practices.
Event language: English with Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) speech-to-text translation support.
Accessibility: Please contact anna.nagele@uni-ak.ac.at if you have any (access) needs for us to consider, or if you have questions about the access provided.
Register here
This event is part of the On the Seam: Anthropology, Design, and Situated Practices symposium navigating frictions, collaborations, and politics shaping present struggles and future possibilities.
The symposium is a collaboration between Futuress and the Department of Design History and Theory at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria, as part of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)-funded research project “Design Anthropology: Cold War Industrial Design & Development” (Grant DOI 10.55776/PAT4411223).
The event is co-curated by Anna N. Nagele and Maya Ober and co-coordinated by Mio Kojima and Anna N. Nagele. Visuals by Heba Daghistani.
Full symposium program
May 8, 2025
2:00 pm – 2:15 pm CEST
Welcome & Opening Remarks
2:15 pm – 3:35 pm CEST
Lectures Session
Pedagogy and Education at the Seam of Anthropology and Design
With Bibiana Serpa and Cherry-Ann Morgan
Moderated by Maya Ober
3:50 pm – 5:10 pm CEST
Lectures Session
Anthropology and Design Shaping Techno-Imaginaries
With Prathima Muniyappa and Grace Turtle
Moderated by Anna N. Nagele
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm CEST
Roundtable
Frictions, Futures, and Possibilities of Anthropology & Design
With Dana Burton, Mahmoud Keshavarz, and Helen Pritchard
Moderated by Anna N. Nagele and Maya Ober
May 9, 2025
9:30 am – 9:45 am CEST
Welcome & Opening Remarks
9:45 am – 11:05 am CEST
Lectures Session
Engaged Practices in Anthropology & Design
With Imad Gebrael and Farah Hallaba
Moderated by Amanda Haas Halim
11:20 am – 12:50 pm CEST
Group Conversation
Let’s Talk About Ways of Knowing
Moderated by Mio Kojima and Bibiana Serpa
12:50 pm – 1:00 pm CEST
Closing Remarks & End of Symposium
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