Course
Design Histories in Southwest Asia & North Africa: Voices from the SWANA Diaspora
Interested in licensing for your institution? Learn more
Design Histories in the Southwest Asia & North Africa: Voices from the SWANA Diaspora 12th – 21st Century is a course that highlights the diversity of our communities and puts forward the most vulnerable in our liberation. For the SWANA region, that means highlighting, uplifting, and specifically amplifying the voices of women who are often unheard. This course will challenge dominant narratives that are often written about us and not by us; visualized as a non-monolithic experience, these classes will share the visual culture and histories of the varied Arab identities.
This series of lectures, revisits, rewrites, and actively archives past and contemporary design practices within the SWANA region through the continuous process of negotiation. It is the third in a series of BIPOC Centered design history courses facilitated by Randa Hadi and Polymode.
While the class times are fluid, we recommend planning on being in class for 2 hours. Trust us, the conversations are so interesting you’re going to want to stay!
Credit
- Curriculum DesignRanda Hadi
- Instructional DesignRanda Hadi
- Course Marketing and OperationsAudrey Davies, Brian Johnson, Silas Munro, Randa Hadi, and Karuna Gangwani
- ProductionAudrey Davies, Randa Hadi, Silas Munro, and Karuna Gangwani
- Teaching AssistantKaruna Gangwani
- Typeface DesignThe Qandus Multiscript font family was developed within the framework of the Khatt Foundation’s type design research project entitled *Typographic Matchmaking in the Maghrib (2015–2017).* The Arabic script was designed by Kristyan Sarkis, the Latin script by Laura meseguer and the Tifinagh by Juan Luis Blanco. Qandus received the TDC2 Excellence in Type Design award in 2017. The goals of the Typographic Matchmaking projects are to nurture cultural dialogue and help develop indigenous design skills. In its third edition entitled Typographic Matchmaking in the Maghrib, a group of European (Dutch, Spanish, French) and Arab (Lebanese, Moroccan, Tunisian) designers will research and develop tri-script font families that combine Arabic, Tifinagh and Latin scripts harmoniously.