Bio — Esther Y. Kang, Ph.D.

About

Esther Y. Kang, Ph.D. is proudly one of many stripes. She is deeply motivated by her values, curiosity, and maternal grandfather’s work ethic and sensibility.

As a design theorist, Esther examines design as a site to understand the industry’s role in standardizing digital and in-person experiences that either deepen or fracture a cultural norm and collective memory. As an interdisciplinary qualitative researcher, she investigates how the design industry reproduces social and environmental inequities, seeking alternative ways to understand and practice equitable, place-based, and community-centered design. As the lead of the Critical Praxis Lab, she facilitates community-based design and technology projects, where digital and experiential products are built in collaboration with community partners. As an activist scholar, Esther focuses on deepening a meditative practice that weaves "theory in the flesh," critical self-reflexivity, and anti-capitalist values into a tight braid.

Previously, Esther spent over 10+ years leading community-centered design projects at national, regional, and local levels with community leaders, organizers, and activists. Her work is grounded in developing place-based frameworks that approach policymaking, urban planning, and product delivery in collaborative, justice-oriented ways, receiving national, industry, and media recognition. Recent collaborators include Vera Institute of Justice, New Jersey Office of Innovation, and the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders under the Obama Administration. More here on her work in academic research, and more here on her journey as a practitioner.

Esther also brings 8+ years of teaching experience in higher education, with past appointments at NYU, SVA, Pratt Institute, Art Center College of Design, and Carnegie Mellon University. For a brief moment, she was also an active photographer and member of a black and white darkroom co-op in Hollywood, CA.

Born in Detroit, MI (yr. 1986), Esther grew up in Los Angeles, CA and Dallas, TX. After spending a year abroad in Australia and South Africa, she also lived in San Francisco, Baltimore, Chicago, Washington D.C., Brooklyn and Pittsburgh. She felt most at home in Baltimore and Brooklyn, yet refers to Los Angeles as her hometown. She grew up in a bicultural and bilingual home. Esther loves getting to know a city by foot and by taste (food!).

In addition to her nonlinear career as a creative, Esther held positions as a waitress, writing tutor, daycare staff, librarian’s assistant, seasonal retail associate, museum tour guide, indoor swap meet worker (downtown Los Angeles), and additional support for her parents’ small business. She genuinely appreciated and gained much from all of these roles, except for her first day as a seasonal associate at Urban Outfitters in San Francisco, which happened to be Black Friday 2010.

In her free time, Esther enjoys learning about the social, industrial, and labor histories of different cities/towns, going on long urban hikes, reading by the beach, listening to 90s + ‘00s hip hop & R&B, and, if afforded the luxury, doing absolutely nothing on a sunny day.

Esther obtained a Ph.D. in design from Carnegie Mellon University, MA in social design at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), BFA with concentrations in art theory and photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and transferred from Pasadena City College (PCC).