Teaching Design History through Plural Narratives. A Conversation with Kristen Coogan on "Design History Reader" (2025)

The new volume Design History Reader: An Emerging Vision for a New Narrative, edited by Kristen Coogan and published in 2025, is situated within contemporary discussions on design history and reflects current concerns about the ways in which it is taught, transmitted, and constructed. The book should be read against the background of a long-standing debate on the pedagogical models and historiographical structures that have traditionally shaped the discipline – a debate that questions not only the centrality of linear and canonical narratives, but also the criteria through which such narratives have been consolidated. Emerging directly from educational practice, the project assigns a central role to student contributions and introduces forms of shared authorship, proposing new ways of investigating, writing, and organizing design history. It is thus informed by a processual and situated perspective, attentive to historically marginalised practices and subjectivities. The interview with Kristen Coogan, editor of the volume and Associate Professor of Art and Chair of Graduate Graphic Design at Boston University, further explores the theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical premises of the project, offering a direct insight into the implications of this approach for the renewal of design history studies.