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The Daily Hub

A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute

  • Amanda Huynh, assistant professor of industrial design, contributed the article “Fostering a Multilingual Design Studio Classroom” to the spring 2021 issue of INNOVATION magazine, the quarterly publication of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA): “The future of industrial design looks like the increasingly diverse students in our classrooms. It is essential that our studio classroom environments allow them to be their full selves and affirm their lived experiences.”

  • In July 2020, Trustee Kathryn Chenault, together with her husband Kenneth, announced their commitment of $1 million to establish scholarships to support diversity in the School of Architecture. The inaugural Chenault Scholarships were awarded to three incoming high-achieving undergraduate students: Fatoumata Diallo, Ariana Dillon, and Rylee Ferguson. With their first year behind them, Fatoumata, Ariana, and Rylee shared their experiences thus far on the School of Architecture site.

  • In its new Behind the Business series, Made in NYC, an initiative of the Pratt Center for Community Development, is spotlighting member stories each Monday through the summer. A recent video features Visiting Assistant Professor of Interior Design Ashira Israel, BArch ’11. Her Brooklyn-based design studio IN.SEK promotes sustainability in its furniture and challenges a culture of disposability and wastefulness.

  • In its Interviews with Esteemed Faculty series, the School of Architecture shared a conversation with Scott Ruff, adjunct associate professor of undergraduate architecture, and Jeffrey Hogrefe, professor of humanities and media studies, on how they have collaborated on engaging students in issues such as gentrification, working with local communities, and seeing architecture and design as ways to protect places.

  • Recently for Mental Health Awareness Month, Pratt SGA, Pratt Health Promotion, Pratt Public Safety, the Office of Student Involvement, and ResLife created care packages for students living in Willoughby Residence Hall. “Each bag contained a pair of ear plugs, a sleep mask, face mask, Pratt journal, cat stress reliever, artwork postcard, and a letter from me,” said SGA President Danni Qu, BFA Communications Design ’21. “The artworks for the postcards were collected from Pratt students across all departments and years.”

  • For the final week of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, artist and illustrator Nicole Rifkin, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’14, contributed cover art for The New Yorker depicting a reflective, intimate moment of self-presentation and pride: “When I was at Pratt, I visited Desert Island, a gallery/store where I first saw the work of Charles Burns, Jordan Crane, Adrian Tomine, and the Hernandez brothers … I became deeply immersed in those comics, and in finding unique ways of telling stories.”

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