Isabel Prochner
Dr. Isabel Prochner (she/they) is a design teacher, researcher, and industrial designer guided by design justice principles. She joined Tech as an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design in Fall 2023. Prior to this role, she worked for five years as a faculty member in the Industrial and Interaction Design, Design Studies, and MFA in Design programs at Syracuse University.
Her research and practice focus on socially and community-engaged industrial design. She explores sex and gender equity in the field through a combination of research into, through, and for design. Prochner’s second book Designing for Sex and Gender Equity is in press with Routledge, and she has American and Canadian patents pending for a chest binder for transmasculine and gender-diverse folks.
Prochner is also interested in design theory building and methodology and methods discussions. She has published work in Design Studies, the highest-ranked academic design journal. She is also an editorial board member for the Sciences du design (Design Science) academic journal and served as an online editor for the renowned Design Research Society for three years.
Social Design
Critical Design
Design Theory
Design Research
IDS 2044: Human Factors
IDS 3015: Industrial Design Lab III
Selected Recent Publications
Books
In press - Prochner, I. Designing for sex and gender equity. London: Routledge.
2022 - Prochner, I. & Antoniuk, T. N. (Eds.). Situating design in Alberta. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press. Shortlisted for the Book Design Prize, Book Publishers Association of Alberta.
Article
2022 - Prochner, I., & Godin, D. Quality in research through design projects: Recommendations for evaluation and enhancement. Design Studies 78, 1-26. Design Studies is the top-ranked journal in design research and has a publication rate of 5%.
Conference proceedings
2022 - Prochner, I., Supporting design research on taboo topics. In Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (Eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao.
2021 - Prochner, I., Theorizing a queered design and the (im)possibility of design for the common good. In M. Botta & S. Junginger (Eds.), Design as common good: Framing design through pluralism and social values (pp. 394-403). Swiss Design Network.
Education
Ph.D. in Environmental Design, University of Montreal
Master of Applied Science in Environmental Design, University of Montreal
Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design, University of Alberta