Scholarship & Research

Dr. Kang (b. 1986 in Detroit, MI) is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Design Studies at UW-Madison's School of Human Ecology (SoHE) and leads The Critical Praxis Lab. Through community-engaged research, Dr. Kang’s work examines the politics of public participation, memory and imagination in the era of big tech and sustainability transitions. Dr. Kang frames design as a site to critically reflect on the ways we construct, organize, and standardize public life. Her work looks at how the industry of design shapes the infrastructure of the innovation economy. She uses archival, ethnographic, participatory, and arts-based methods.

Dr. Kang’s work primarily examines how design shapes public imagination in urban renewal initiatives and projects. This work locates itself in socially-marginalized economies & regions largely animated by low-income communities. It is led to address two interests: 1) the relationship between agency, interconnectedness and (forced) displacement, and 2) translating the politics of design to inform a new way to practice. This work sits at the intersection of design studies, urban humanities, critical geography, and science and technology studies.

Selected projects include a) manuscript on design’s role in shaping the acceleration of data center proposals , b) oral history project that documents the community’s response to hyperscale data center development across Wisconsin, and c) community archive that preserves artifacts created to support resident-led activism that aims to hold big tech accountable. Additionally, Dr. Kang is co-leading an effort to develop a community benefits process that accounts for Wisconsin-based residents in large scale development projects, an initiative spearheaded by collaborator, Dr. Anna Haensch.

Dr. Kang’s primary affiliation is with the Design Studies Dept., and her secondary affiliation is with the Civil Society and Community Studies Dept. at SoHE. She is also a member of the Wisconsin RISE Initiative, Global Human Ecology Network, UW-Madison’s Data Center Working Group, and faculty affiliate at the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies.

Through a humanistic social science approach, Dr. Kang develops three types of tools through her work: 1) conceptual, 2) analytical, and 3) practical. This informs industry standards, policies, practice, and pedagogy.

Through The Critical Praxis Lab, Dr. Kang leads an interdisciplinary group that is looking at the implications of design for the construction and organization of civic life. Through empirical, conceptual and practice-based research, the lab aims to bridge resident-led efforts and systems-level decision making processes to instigate grounded, people-led structural change. (site + logo forthcoming)

2026 Members Include: Bonbon Yang (Ph.D. advisee; HCI and design doctoral student), Allison Breitzmann (Community & Organizational Development + PoliSci Undergrad); Kayla Johnson (Design Studies Undergrad), Clarice Handoko (Sociology Doctoral Student); Bijoyetri Samaddar (Sociology Doctoral Student)

2025 Members Include: Emily Burke (Summer PA; Sociology Doctoral Student), and Areyana Proctor (Summer PA; Communication Arts Doctoral Student).

Dr. Kang’s previous academic appointments include NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Pratt Institute, School of Visual Art, and Art Center College of Design.

She obtained her Ph.D. in Design from Carnegie Mellon University, MA in social design from Maryland Institute College of Art, BFA with concentrations in photography and art theory from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and transferred from Pasadena City College.

Feel free to reach out to chat about collaboration, speaking opportunities, and generally these works: eykang2@wisc.edu