Confronting the Limitations of the MFA As Preparation for Phd Study

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Phd in art and design LEONARDO, Vol. 53, No.2,pp.206–212,2020 206 ABSTRACT and organizational psychology, cultural anthropology, man- cognitive theory, systems disciplines: other by informed is practice for paradigm shifting this under research Design on Mul historical practices. design of those than demanding more challenges methodological and topical face it, support thatprograms doctoral the and ampleis that anevidence emergent research design culture, expertise in more than one discipline require forthey theirAnd solution.unstable. Thereinherently are constraints and tolerance for uncertainty, with the knowledge that conditions for the resolution of many competing priorities and demand thatsettings resist call generalization They andrulemaking. defy linear analysis. They are situated in an infinite variety of involve complex systems and address interdependencies that They work. mid-twentieth-century characterized that tion func and appearance of problems well-structured the simple, not are design in issues research pressing the Today, in design. therefore, dependstosomeextentonrethinkingmaster’s study Strengthening ofthequalityindoctoralresearchandsupervision, evaluationcriteriafromtheresearchthresholdsinotherfields. alternate of manydesignfacultyandextendtotheinstitutionaladoption persistinthescholarlypursuits than afewpages.Theseshortfalls methodologically rigorousinvestigationsorevenauthorpaperslonger research paradigmsandtheircorrespondingstandards,structure unprepared toposetrulyresearchablequestions,recognizemultiple Students graduatefromprofessionalMFA designprogramsoften master’sthe curricularcontentandpedagogyofterminal degree. Design facultyanddoctoralstudentsarehinderedinthisworkby work. are morecomplexandcallforinter-multidisciplinary Today’s fromthepast;they designresearchproblemsaredifferent as PreparationforhDStudy Confronting theLimitationsofMFA with thisissue. See www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/53/2 forsupplementalfilesassociated Meredith D t idi e

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faculty researchfaculty histories, regardless of disciplinary their AdmissionsBeing. practicesmatch student interests with forDesign Sustainability Learning, and Health and Well- nowriculum on focuses areas of research impact, such as in Information and Design Community cur the Design, dents and faculty. defined separate Originally by tracks practices to interdisciplinary the meet interests of stu- change and itsadmissions curriculum PhD inDesign North Carolina State University found to it necessary effortstidisciplinary [10]. for evaluating students frequently get way inthe of mul- processes, scheduling, cost-sharing and accountability kindofthis work, studiesthat find tenure and promotion inquiry. Although many universities openly encourage along falls research more expertise conventional lines of partnerships other of than those senior whose faculty professors may have to negotiate research agendas and follow interests, these students doctoral and assistant domainsthe of established departments. academic To express interest inresearch that territory between falls problems. students Doctoral and frequently faculty new often outliveframing in their contemporary usefulness reinforcericula traditional boundaries disciplinary that of reality [9].Academic journals and university cur pioneering professionals subdivisions against artificial work asprotestsmultidisciplinary by students and fielddisciplinary [7,8]. ethnographies of the possible are unique to inter the Topics such as decolonizing design innovation and interpretation versus alimited of history theorizing [6]. futures-oriented collaboration, and sustained cultural versusobservation intervention, scholarship solo versus unionthe of anthropology and as reconciling design versity professors Otto and Smith, for example, describe differentfrom workseparatethe in fields. Aarhus Uni- participating disciplines define researchthat is very lapping interests and creative tensions the between inbusiness thinking design are afew examples. Over anthropology, human-computer interaction and design other disciplines inscholarship and practice:design knowledge. wasgoal bridge-building rather than atotal synthesis of biotechnology criticism, for and social example. The ies” and arange of hybrid fields:cultural geography, related subjects [5].Out of effort this came “area stud- “doctrine of correlation,” for making connections among As early as 1930s, the institutions academic argued for a to theintegrationlead of separate fields. previously should define contemporary research specializations. tion of physical the whether things makes adesigner demandedskills by complex problems [4]—but aques- Not long into its history, program doctoral the at The OECD cites another impetus for inter- and Today, there are similar effortswith design to link In changes other insurrounding cases, conditions - - Davis, Confronting theLimitationsof theMFA as PreparationforPhD Study semination of film, photography and other media. contextual productionthe dis - and in ethnographicthemes analyzing anthropology, social of subset a as emerged ogy anthropolmany visual programs.period, - time sameIn the in twentieth-century design curricula but is now common in education. Ethnography would have been odd subject matter design or practice contentdesign of the as seen usually not fields to researchers design led has experiences designing to objects designing from shift a example, For discrete disciplines. under categorization defy investigations porary contem Many [14]. fields research dissimilar seemingly of concerns the among coherence for searches introspective contextsthat inparticular makes useful them [13]. dards for creativity can overlook the appropriateness of ideas Forinstance, novelty studies stan of- as idea fluency oridea application. its and theory the of integrity the undermines often theory a of all not but some Further,borrowing [12]. otic in theory addressing the materiality of written language ibleWord for, example, pointed out limits the of early - semi Historian Johanna Drucker’s published dissertation may not be wholly appropriate for the borrowing discipline. in borrowing are twofold. First, the theory or method may or the testing methods of human factors engineering. Therisks century.twentieth the adoptedof Industrialhalf design last the in design communication visual to migrated language spokenof theories proximity close Semiotic ciplinesin [11]. dis- among occurs often This methods. or tools theories, of forms. In some cases, it involves an instrumental borrowing In other instances, inter- and multidisciplinary efforts are Inter- and multidisciplinary activity can take a number of tion of established curricula. research centers rather than through slower the evolu- for interdisciplinary new programs to from arise work in hiring practices.Foracademic reason, this it is common cedures for offerings revising curricular traditionaland programsacademic are bound by time-intensive pro- and project-based engagement of various faculty, while centers respond flexibly to sponsors’ research interests Many perspective. single disciplinary of research these imperativesocial for work that cannot limited be to a edge that lacks ahome intraditional fields of study, a centersthese from arise demands practical for knowl- of resourceslocus and talent. academic In many cases, outtives, carving and territory gaining status as the centers inresponse or to industry government initia- fields of study. Universities frequently establish research encourage research thatfunding also partners crosses in emergent areas of research. multidisciplinarythe engagement of students and faculty college or department. Their missions are to encourage under dual appointments and tenure inmore than one hired accomplished researchers inavarietyof fields work throughout institution, the university the also affiliations. To overcome obstacles to interdisciplinary The operational of institutionspractices and their The - Vis - 207

phd in art and design Some research problems are unique in scale. Today’s de- design practice [19], there is still an overwhelming bias in sign challenges involve a number of interacting systems and most MFA design programs toward the creation of artifacts have far-reaching consequences over time. Much of the work (physical or virtual) consistent with traditional definitions Phd in art and design in social innovation design, for example, cannot be addressed of the field [20]. through the knowledge and simple methods for designing Design educator Dietmar Winkler attributed the voca- objects. Too often, design studies focus on the content of tional orientation of MFA design curricula in the United messages and overlook the social, cultural, technological States to the pre–World War II integration of the Bauhaus and economic systems necessary to sustain meaningful curriculum with the liberal arts culture of Ivy League schools change. [21]. The school’s form-driven exercises were easy to repli- Design is not alone in confronting a new paradigm, and cate, and a growing industrial economy in America argued debates across fields of study are likely to be transformative. for a predictably skilled workforce for the newly established Anthropologist Clifford Geertz describes our current situa- design professions. State universities copied this model and tion as a reconfiguration of thought that goes beyond “the became places to refine practice-based skills, not to engage moving of a few disputed borders, the marking of some more in intellectual discourse about the social consequences of de- picturesque mountains, but an alteration of the principles of sign. Winkler described the misfit of this approach with the mapping . . . something is happening to the way we think emerging research interests of 21st-century design: about the way we think” [15]. Critic Louis Menand, in his The underlying problem is that neither the Bauhaus nor book The Marketplace of Ideas, describes college professors other influential design schools have instilled in the de- in “a real fight, a fight not with each other and our schools sign constituency a disciplined process of research, with the . . . but with the forces that make and remake the world most ethical understanding of all necessary skills. . . . What most human beings live in” [16]. It is in this environment that de- designers understand as research is information gathering, sign research and evidence-based doctoral programs work sometimes information synthesis and analysis, but rarely as to establish relevance. the testing of conceptual models, or the testing and applica- The Limitations of the Terminal MFA tion of data from findings in sociology or psychology. To many, the malfunctioning of design solutions has more to The demand for new knowledge and research methods appro- with the choice of visual packaging than the design’s misfit priate to the scale and inherent interdisciplinarity of contem- with complex social, economic, political and psychological porary design problems raises questions about the readiness contexts [22]. of doctoral students to take on meaningful investigations in today’s PhD design programs. The typical candidate for ad- Two decades after Winkler’s essay, a small number of mas- mission to PhD study in design holds a professional master’s ter’s programs show greater concern for evidence-driven ap- degree in architecture or one of the design disciplines. Many proaches to the investigation of design problems. However, candidates also earned professional bachelor’s degrees in the most graduate design curricula still lack a disciplined intro- same field, where the distribution of credits for graduation duction to research methods and formal study outside the favors studio work over reading and writing across fields of major that contextualizes student inquiry. It is fashionable study. This assignment of effort is particularly characteristic to identify “research” as an outcome of design programs or of single-discipline art schools, where a small inventory of to title degrees under terminology that separates the degree liberal arts courses serves a cohort of students, all majoring from conventional discipline-based study—interdisciplin- in visual fields. ary design, design methods, design innovation and design The National Association of Schools of Art and Design research, for example. Yet few of these programs actively en- (NASAD)—the accrediting body for college and university gage designers with faculty and students from non–design art and design programs in the United States—designated the fields or in critical explorations of design within complex Master of Fine Arts the “terminal” degree for design in 1964 social, technological or economic systems. [17]. Today, most North American colleges and universities The studio-based bias of terminal degrees in design in- respect this designation in hiring, tenuring and promoting fluences the type of research undertaken by design faculty faculty in graphic, industrial and interior design. As relative in American colleges and universities. Evidence-based, latecomers to graduate study, MFA design programs typically discovery-oriented investigations on which others build follow a fine arts curricular model. Students work indepen- new knowledge—as opposed to inspiring artifacts of applica- dently under the critical eye of faculty, often with limited tion—are often missing or suppressed under current criteria departmental consensus on an explicitly “taught” course of for evaluating faculty performance [23]. Absent in the mea- study that is consistent in scope from year to year. NASAD sures for judging the scholarly achievement of design faculty guidelines call for 65% or more of the terminal master’s cur- are standards and evidence (grants, refereed publications, riculum to be in studio-based coursework [18], and in many patents, etc.) comparable in rigor to those of more mature program catalogs, a single studio course description repre- research disciplines in which members arrive research-ready sents open-ended studio work across two years of study. And for their faculty appointments through their graduate study. although recent NASAD standards reflect broader under- This is not to suggest that peer-reviewed professional practice standing of content and methods that inform contemporary is an inappropriate indicator of faculty performance in ten-

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of a mature research culture and keep the discipline on the generalizable to the field. hd in art and design perimeter of many activities that universities value most. p Further, they limit the ability of design faculty and graduate Implications for the PhD in Design students to work as equal partners in funded research that The dilemma for the PhD in Design, therefore, resides at the has impact beyond the university [24]. intersection of changes in the nature of professional practice, inter- and multidisciplinary demands of design research, and Faculty Design of Graduate Curricula entering student qualifications. Little of most designers’ mas- Some design faculty not only make the case for exemption ter’s education prepares them to identify seminal readings from typical research standards in the sciences and humani- in another field, adopt a perspective among its competing ties but also perpetuate these alternate performance metrics theories, understand its authentic methods and their lim- in the design of graduate curricula. Many MFA students its, respect its standards for judging “good work” or apply graduate with no experience in posing truly researchable its findings to a new context. Neither do faculty who admit questions, recognizing multiple research paradigms and their students to doctoral programs in design have a good way of corresponding standards, structuring methodologically rig- judging these student abilities in the absence of direct evi- orous investigations or even authoring papers longer than dence resulting from MFA study. a few pages. These shortfalls are evident in applications for How then do doctoral students first identify the relevance admission to evidence-based PhD programs. The first year of content other than design to their research topics in time of doctoral coursework often bears disproportionate respon- to undertake scaffolded study for building graduate-level sibility for distinguishing research from library retrieval and competencies in a related field? How do they acknowl- speculative practice-based projects. While it may not be rea- edge the limits of their non-design expertise when defin- sonable for master’s students to acquire deep research skills ing their research investigations? And what does enrollment in two years under a professional curriculum, they can de- or study outside of design mean for graduate curricular velop research-sensitive dispositions and the ability to read structures? and apply theories and findings from other fields in the gen- eration of new design work. The Use of Cognates in Doctoral Curricula This lack of research readiness as an outcome of MFA In some evidence-based doctoral programs, students under- study in design goes to the heart of changing conditions in take a cognate, an advised collection of courses in a discipline the field. As undergraduate programs accelerate the devel- other than the design major. Cognate courses typically re- opment of professional skills under traditional, crafts-based late to the student’s specific area of investigation and offer a definitions of practice—largely due to the time-saving and theoretical perspective, method or problem context differ- precision benefits of technology—pressure to differentiate ent from that of the primary discipline. Such study may be the outcomes of bachelor’s and master’s study increases. required or simply allowed. Requiring cognate study may The proliferation of MFA design programs in American address the limits of instructional support in the primary universities further exacerbates the need to define eco- discipline and is often a curricular strategy in the early years nomically viable, distinctive missions for graduate educa- of a program, when there are too few faculty with doctoral tion. Given the cost of graduate education, many students credentials to make the curriculum self-sufficient [26]. The question spending two or three years refining professional cognate acquaints students with experts in related fields who skills learned as undergraduates when similar development can serve as members of dissertation committees and en- is possible through practical, situated work in a good de- hances job opportunities by broadening graduates’ claims sign office. Likewise, confusion over the nature of design re- to additional knowledge and skills. In other cases, the cog- search reinforces public perceptions of the value of pursuing nate acknowledges the inter- or multidisciplinary nature of a PhD [25]. contemporary research problems. Study outside of the field The emergence of practice-based PhD programs can also represents a philosophical position regarding the nature of be seen as an effort to accommodate the research shortcom- design, not just an operational strategy. Among doctoral de- ings of MFA graduates who hope to teach at the college level. sign programs that require a cognate, faculty often specify a Practice-based programs extend the conceptual framework second methods course in another discipline as follow-up to of the BFA and MFA degrees through reflection on creative a methodological survey in design. practice rather than knowledge discovery upon which others At the same time, there are challenges for design students build theories of action. This is a comfortable space for both in cognate study. The first is in selecting appropriate non- faculty and students. It reaffirms the values of earlier study design courses under limited space in the doctoral curricu- and deepens existing skills and perspectives. While such lum. Supervising faculty must recommend courses that offer study may be supported by readings from outside the field, either an important overview of issues or detailed study most practice-based programs more typically reframe traditional directly related to the student’s research topic. This often aspects of the domain in writing that is rarely held account- means ignoring curricular scaffolding in the cognate disci- able to the research criteria of other disciplines. This is not pline, placing design students at some disadvantage in incre-

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_a_01600 by guest on 25 September 2021 mentally building content mastery in the second field. Just Only in a select few American universities, however, can as a non-designer would have an incomplete or skewed per- students earn the Master of Philosophy. Typically, this de- spective on design under several randomly selected courses, gree provides an “exit strategy” for students who choose not Phd in art and design designers often view a very narrow slice of the cognate dis- to continue to PhD dissertation work after completing the cipline as wholly representative of the field or as sufficient coursework portion of the curriculum (that is, for students preparation for claiming research expertise. with “All but Dissertation” status). Unlike many other coun- The second challenge is in acquiring sufficient knowledge tries, the United States considers the Master of Philosophy as to support certain types of design dissertations. a “taught degree,” rather than independent study. But in all One of my doctoral students was interested in the creative cases, the Master of Philosophy is viewed as research training risk-taking of children taught under a design-based ap- for later PhD study, while the Master of Arts and Master of proach to secondary education—a pedagogical strategy in Science in a design field generally are not. The assumption is which teachers use design challenges in a variety of subject that the Master of Philosophy develops the reading, writing areas. The doctoral student took a number of courses in edu- and critical thinking prerequisites for doctoral research not cation, included education faculty on her doctoral committee present in studio-based design programs. and identified several middle schools with well-developed Bridge degrees can also serve non–design students from design-based cultures as sites for observation. However, she related disciplines seeking admission to a PhD program in lacked the depth of understanding in education and psycho- design. As interest in design research grows, other fields ex- logical research to attribute students’ risk-taking behavior pand their scope to include design-related content. Programs in creative problem-solving activities specifically to design- in environmental studies, communication, engineering, based pedagogies. business and computer science, for example, often include I redirected her efforts toward assessing the relationships design-related study not immediately apparent in college among what teachers thought was meant by “creative risk- transcripts. Applicants to PhD design programs from these taking,” the formal and informal ways in which teachers disciplines may have highly relevant content mastery and reached consensus on these definitions with colleagues and stronger research dispositions than their counterparts in de- how their design of classroom activities and pedagogy re- sign. Yet spending two years in a studio-oriented MFA pro- flected their stated perceptions of creative risk-taking. gram to qualify for an evidence-based PhD program makes Through a grounded theory approach the doctoral stu- little sense to them, and many lack the formal portfolio re- dent studied planning documents, teacher interviews and quired for admission to master’s study in design. classroom interactions with students. She assessed the re- It is unclear what the specific content of a bridge degree lationship between constraints and opportunities in teach- for non-designers might be, and it could depend on the stu- ers’ construction of design challenges and asked students dent’s first discipline. However, such degrees must address what their teachers meant by “taking creative risks” to assess both breadth and depth in curricular requirements, with the whether teachers were consistent in their use of definitions intent of locating specific areas of study within the larger dis- across instruction. cipline. The field already suffers from the superficiality of de- As a design researcher with only a few courses in educa- sign evidence in research investigations by other disciplines. tion, this doctoral student was not qualified to determine I recently argued with a marketing professor over a study what ideas or actions constituted “risk” for particular stu- claiming that people prefer “bounded logos” in tough finan- dents, whether design activities contributed to their general cial times (that is, symbols with strong geometric contours, risk-taking behavior when confronted with other creative rather than the irregular boundaries of logotypes and organic challenges, or student gains in risk-taking over time. Al- forms). I was at a loss over where to begin my critique of this though she was tempted to evaluate products of student work research, but the real issue was insensitivity to the range of as evidence of risk-taking, in the absence of such knowledge interdependent visual variables and the difficulty in isolat- she had no way to avoid over-reading the novelty of their ing contextual influences on the interpretive effectiveness of solutions as risk-taking. In other words, the doctoral student corporate identity. At the same time, I could easily imagine was not an expert in learning as a result of her limited cog- the “visual rules” imposed on practicing designers by aggres- nate study, and a diverse graduate faculty committee owed sive marketing professionals who believe such data actually her active participation in framing an investigation that was represent a meaningful correlation—or worse yet, an impe- congruent with her knowledge and skills. tus for customers choosing a particular product—between the Gestalt properties of graphic form and the state of the Development of Bridge Degrees at the Master’s Level economy. If doctoral students are unprepared in the multidisciplinary The dual challenges in curricula that bridge undergraduate skills and knowledge suggested by the complexity of today’s and doctoral study, therefore, are: (1) to develop in design- design problems, can initial master’s degrees address the ers the dispositions, methods and multidisciplinary under- threshold learning necessary for doctoral pursuits? standing that underpin design research and (2) to provide Throughout the world, the Master of Philosophy is typi- graduates of other disciplines with sufficient depth to ask cally understood as a thesis-only research degree that bridges meaningful questions about design while also making good undergraduate education and further study at the PhD level. use of their previous study.

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There is ample evidence on listservs that doctoral programs an ongoing history of dissertation supervision. hd in art and design p recruit students for active projects in research centers (for Potential for Collaborative Dissertation example, the Design Lab at the University of California, San Work That Includes Design Diego). Using this strategy, faculty build continuing efforts around focused topics and attract doctoral talent for specific Although faculty are usually credited in the publication of research roles. When faculty from more than one discipline research completed under their supervision, the doctoral de- staff these centers, design students learn the relevance of sign student is typically a sole researcher. Yet this is not the other fields to their work under colleagues who model best way most research is conducted outside the academy, espe- research practices. These students identify individual topics cially when problems call for expertise in more than one dis- appropriate to their own expertise but within the context of cipline. Given the complexity of today’s problems—to which a mature design research effort with a specific focus. design may contribute insights—new collaborative disser- One advantage of this approach to building student re- tation models should be considered. Pairing students from search competencies is that faculty only admit students in different disciplines would not only expand the influence of areas for which faculty have deep research expertise, rather such research but would also prepare a research workforce than mere interest in the applicant’s professed topic. And stu- that is skilled in collaboration among fields of study. Mecha- dents are accepted on the basis of a match between their skills nisms currently exist for joint supervision of student work by and the particular role they will play in the overall work of the faculty from a variety of fields. As long as these faculty can ac- center. Because the typical articulation of research territory count for the quality of individual student contributions, in- by MFA graduates in their applications to PhD programs stitutions could apply the same procedures to student work. is excessively broad and often naive, design faculty tend to accept students with the intention of narrowing or redirect- Conclusion ing possible areas of investigation as the student progresses The issues facing current doctoral programs in design— through the program. However, it is common under these growing complexity in the nature of design research prob- liberal evaluations of applicant research interests for faculty lems, limitations of master’s study in the field and doctoral to later find themselves supervising a dissertation in which curricular compensation for a lack of disciplinary breadth in the student is much better qualified in the subject area than designers’ education—are likely symptoms of an emerging the mentor. research culture. Yet they are likely to persist unless the field I receive many email requests for dissertation consulta- pays attention to the linchpin role currently played by the tion from doctoral students who have no topically qualified MFA in design and the isolation of design faculty and stu- faculty mentor in the universities they attend. Much of this dents from the scholarly standards of research universities. external communication involves a successive “testing of Applicants to PhD programs who have deep experience in the waters” regarding possible research questions. It is im- design certainly bring important insights to design research, possible to advise these students outside the protocols and different from those of other scholars. And master’s study can ideological perspectives of their home institutions, to which enrich the capabilities offered by the profession. Under the they are ultimately accountable. And it is the work of resident continuing proliferation of MFA design programs and grow- faculty to acquaint students with seminal literature and to ing interest in doctoral education, however, the challenge for refine research proposals before setting them loose on the the field lies not in simply expanding the number of graduate field to ascertain topic viability—or, more disturbingly, for an offerings but in strengthening and refining what it means to introductory orientation to evidence-based research. conduct research in design.

References and Notes 4 T. Wendt, Design for Dasein: Understanding the Design of Experiences (New York: Thomas Wendt, 2015). 1 L. Apostel, Interdisciplinarity: Problems of Teaching and Research in Universities (Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and 5 J. Klein, Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice (Detroit: Development, 1972). Wayne State Univ. Press, 1990) p. 26. 2 The 2016–2026 projection of employment by the U.S. Bureau of 6 T. Otto and R.C. Smith, “Design Anthropology: A Distinct Style of Labor Statistics shows average growth of 5–8% in all sectors com- Knowing,” in W. Gunn, T. Otto and R.C. Smith, eds., Design Anthro- bined. However, the Bureau estimates below-average growth in the pology: Theory and Practice(London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013) traditional practices of graphic design (4%); industrial design (4%); pp. 3–5. architecture (4%); and interior design (4%). By contrast, design posi- tions in networked communications are predicted to grow by 15% 7 E. Tunstall, “Decolonizing Design Innovation,” in Gunn et al. [6]. and software development will require 302,500 new designers, a 24% 8 J. Halse, “Ethnographies of the Possible,” in Gunn et al. [6]. increase. This shift in practice favors areas based in interdisciplinary collaboration. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: www.bls.gov/ooh. 9 Klein [5] p. 41. 3 T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions(Chicago: University 10 North Carolina State University, Task Force Report on Comprehen- of Chicago Press, 1962). siveness and Interdisciplinarity (2011): https://strategicplan.ncsu.edu

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_a_01600 by guest on 25 September 2021 /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/comprehensiveness-and-interdisci 21 D. Winkler, “Design Practice and Education: Moving beyond the plinarity-wp-fin.pdf (accessed 2 May 2017). Bauhaus Model,” in J. Frascara, ed., User-Centered Graphic Design: Mass Communications and Social Change (London: Taylor and Fran- 11 Klein [5] p. 44. cis, 1997) pp. 129–135. Phd in art and design 12 J. Drucker, The Visible Word: Experimental Typography and Modern Art, 1909–1923 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997). 22 Winkler [21] p. 133. 13 R. Sternberg and T. Lubart, “The Concept of Creativity: Prospects 23 I have served as an external evaluator for more than 70 faculty under and Paradigms,” in R. Sternberg, ed., Handbook of Creativity (New consideration for promotion and tenure. As such, I have reviewed York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999). faculty dossiers of research and creative practice as well as the tenure and promotion guidelines applied to college-level design faculty. 14 Klein [5] p. 44. 24 M. Davis, “Tenure and Design Research: A Disappointingly Familiar 15 C. Geertz, “Blurred Genres: The Reconfiguration of Social Thought,” Discussion,” Design and Culture 8 (2016) pp. 123–131. American Scholar 49, No. 2, 165–166 (1980). 16 L. Menand, The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the 25 A December 2010 article by The Economist titled “The Disposable American University (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010) Academic: Why Doing a PhD Is Often a Waste of Time” reported p. 125. that most PhDs earn only 3% over those with master’s degrees, with graduates of some professional fields, such as architecture, actually 17 National Association of Schools of Art (NASA), NASA Bulletin (Res- earning less. Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, in their book ton, VA: National Association of Schools of Art, 1964) p. 4. The name Higher Education? How Colleges are Wasting Our Money and Failing was subsequently changed to the National Association of Schools of Our Kids (Macmillan, 2010), calculated that there were only 16,000 Art and Design (NASAD). new professorships for the more than 100,000 PhDs awarded in the United States between 1998 and 2006. Public perception of the value 18 National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), Na- of design research and the skills of researchers, therefore, must be tional Association of Schools of Art and Design Handbook (Reston, built on something other than employment outcomes for graduates VA: National Association of Schools of Art and Design, 2018–2019) of doctoral programs. p. 146. 26 D. Christensen, K. Gibson and L. Vernon, “The Role of the Cognate 19 Revisions in standards for design programs under National Asso- Course in Professional Communication Programs,” Programmatic ciation of Schools of Art and Design accreditation acknowledge the Perspectives 2, No. 1 (2010) p. 29. value of research education and coursework beyond the traditional studio-based model. Revisions also separated design standards from those of fine arts disciplines by detailing distinct competencies for graduate degree programs in design. Design standards can be found Manuscript received 30 June 2017. in the NASAD Handbook: https://nasad.arts-accredit.org/accredita tion/standards-guidelines/handbook/.pdf, pp. 117–123, 145–146. 20 I have completed more than 80 curricular consultations and reviews Meredith Davis is Professor Emerita in the College of De- in the U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, South America, Australia, Europe sign at North Carolina State University, where she served as and the Middle East. I have also read as many as 30 institutional Director of the interdisciplinary PhD in Design and Director of self-studies and on-site visitors’ reports annually in nearly 10 years Graduate Studies. She is an AIGA national medalist and fel- of service on the accreditation commission of the National Associa- tion of Schools of Art and Design. The reviews look at curricular low, NASAD fellow and Alexander Quarles Holladay Medalist structure, course syllabi and examples of student work. for Excellence in Teaching.

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