Eric Anderson studies and teaches the history of modern design, with interests in interiors and domesticity, design exhibitions and media, psychological theories in design, and the global history of modernism. His articles and reviews have appeared in the journals West 86th, Centropa, Journal of Design History, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, Austrian History Yearbook, German History and Burlington Magazine and in books including Design Dialogue: Jews, Culture and Viennese Modernism (Vienna, 2018), Making Home: The Arts and Crafts Movement and the Reform of Everyday Life (New Haven, 2018), Klimt und der Ringstrasse (Vienna, 2015) and Performance, Fashion, and the Modern Interior (Oxford, 2011). As Fulbright-Freud Visiting Lecturer of Psychoanalysis at the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna in 2017, he conducted research toward a forthcoming book Dreams in Color: Vienna’s Decorative Experiences. His most recent project tracks intersections of design pedagogy and global discourses of development at the Ulm School of Design and through Ulm’s international exchanges in Latin America, South Asia and East Asia.
Academic areas of interest
the domestic interior
museums, exhibitions, display and media
design and the social sciences (anthropology, ethnography, psychology)
cultural history of Austria and Germany
global design history
Courses
Spring 2025 Courses
GRAD 190G-01 - CONVERSATIONS ON CONTEMPORARY DESIGN: MODERNISM AND BEYOND
LevelGraduate
UnitTheory + History of Art + Design
Subject Graduate Studies
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
GRAD 190G-01
CONVERSATIONS ON CONTEMPORARY DESIGN: MODERNISM AND BEYOND
LevelGraduate
UnitTheory + History of Art + Design
Subject Graduate Studies
PeriodSpring 2025
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2025-02-13 to 2025-05-23
Times: F | 9:40 AM - 12:40 PMInstructor(s): Eric AndersonLocation(s): Washington Place, Room 310Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
The course offers graduate students a forum for exploring historical and theoretical foundations of contemporary design and craft arts. Readings, discussions, lectures, and writing projects address a range of contexts for the practice of design, from materials and making, to ways that objects are encountered, consumed, and lived with, to design's promises and limitations for dealing with global crises of climate, poverty, conflict, disease, and displacement. Weekly meetings are structured around critical themes selected through student input. Readings and case studies offer points of departure for discussion and writing. Guest lectures by designers, curators, and critics provide viewpoints on contemporary practice. Culminating with a final artist statement and presentation, the work undertaken throughout the term will be oriented toward developing historical and critical frameworks in which to situate students' own studio and research practices.
