Lisa Baumgarten is a critical design mediator – a designer, researcher, writer and teacher/learner.
She is the co-creator of the participatory research platform Teaching Design which focuses on design education from intersectional feminist and decolonial perspectives. In the course of the platform Baumgarten has been facilitating a conversational series together with Judith Leijdekkers funded by the Stimuleringsfonds and authors/edits an infrequent newsletter on design education.
Baumgarten has been teaching design theory and practice as adjunct lecturer at German and international design universities since 2017. In the winter semester 2024/25 she facilitated three seminars as interim professor for Design Theory at the Faculty of Design at University of Applied Sciences Mainz. From Oct 2022–Aug 2023 Baumgarten was a guest professor at Studiengruppe Informationdesign (Communication design) at Burg Giebichenstein, University of Art and Design Halle. From Oct 2021–Sep 2022 she held a position as interim professor of Design Sciences at the Institute of Design Research at Braunschweig University of Arts where she facilitated seminars in the M.A. program Transformation Design and the B.A. program Design in der digitalen Gesellschaft.
In recent years she has been invited to conceptualise and facilitate workshops and conversational formats for creative practitioners, educational and cultural institutions, such as the Stimuleringsfonds, The Design Museum Gent, the Whitechapel Gallery London, Teaching Design, Kunst- und Gewerbemuseum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, re:publica, Estonian Academy of Arts as well as the Umeå Institute of Design – surrounding topics of power asymmetries, working towards safe(r) spaces, fair and collective practices. Baumgarten’s workshops center around norm-critical and intersectional feminist approaches. Together with Mio Kojima she offers a lecture/workshop format for design educators and faculty staff focusing on discrimination-sensitive approaches to design education.
Her current research focuses on design education, its entanglements with colonial continuities and teaching/learning practices as institutional critique. Baumgarten’s research and writing has been published and presented amongst others at Attending [to] Futures Conference at KISD Cologne, Creative Bodies—Creative Minds Conference (Graz), Designsymposium Kompliz*innen at BURG Halle, the The German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF) as well as form design magazine. 

Upcoming

24.4.2025
Conversation about power-critical design pedagogy with students of the MA program
at the Faculty of Design / Communication Design at University of Applied Sciences Mainz

23.5.2024
Workshop, “Diskriminierungskritisches Lehren und Lernen im Design”
with Mio Kojima and teachers and staff of  the faculty of design at University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Dortmund

22.5.2024
Biting The Hand That Feeds You – Designlehr- und lernformate als institutionskritische Praxen
Lecture at the faculty of design at University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Dortmund

19.4.2024
“Diskriminierungskritisches Lehren und Lernen im Design”
Keynote lecture with Mio Kojima at the faculty of design at University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Dortmund

Selected recent activities
26.–27.10.2023
“Designvermittlung als (selbst-)kritische Praxis”
Lecture at the Kurt Schwitters Symposium 2023 “Kritik als Haltung und Methode”
Hochschule Hannover

18.–19.10.2023
“Doing knowledge in design”
Panel, Lecture Performance with Anja Neidhardt-Mokoena and Mara Recklies
Interposed Symposium, Hochschule Mainz

12.9.2023
“Sustainable relations in design”
Lecture as part of Benedetta Crippa’s seminar on “visual sustainability”
Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Sweden

8.9.2023
Presenting my current research at
Research Fika at Umeå Insitute of Design Research
Umeå University, Sweden

8.5.2023
“What about fair practice?”
Workshop with Judith Leijdekkers for Stimuleringsfonds
at TENT Rotterdam

29–30 November 2022
Imagine Elsewhere
Lecture and participation in research seminar
organized by Anja Neidhardt and Christina Zetterlund
Kulturparken Småland, Växjö, (SE)

Get in touch
via e-Mail

or on social media
Bluesky / ︎

Work featured/ Press
Missy Magazine 03/2021
Some words by Meg Miller on AIGA Eye on Design
Hurra Hurra Podcast – Episode 03 on Spotify
Jonas Berthod for Weltformat Magazine Not (yet) Cancelled

Previous lectureships and teaching engagements in MA and BA Design programs at:
University of Art and Design Halle (BURG)
Estonian Academy of Arts 
University of Applied Sciences Berlin (HTW Berlin)
Umeå University, Umeå Institute of Design and Umeå Centre for Gender Studies
University of Arts Berlin (UdK Berlin)
Braunschweig University of Arts (HBK Braunschweig)
University of Arts Bremen (HfK Bremen)

Selected Clients and Collaborators
A–Z, Space for Experimental Graphic Design, Absurd Dialog, And She Was Like: BÄM!, Anja Neidhardt-Mokoena, Architektursommer Rhein-Mai, Atelier Gilman (CH), Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft, Campus Rütli – CR2, FIELD.io (UK), Fondament, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Hermès, Institut für Industriedesign Darmstadt, Junge Akademie der Künste Berlin, Laura Bernhardt, Lucie Schroeder, Mara Recklies, Meiré und Meiré, Mio Kojima, Museum Giersch, Museum Ludwig, Paul Steinman, Platine Festival, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Random Studio (NL), Royal College of Psychiatrists, London (UK), re:publica, Siedle, simple GmbH, Sruli Recht, Studio Benedetta Crippa, Studio Hato (UK), Studio Martha Schwindling, Theaterhaus Jena, Wieden+Kennedy (US), …

Imprint/Impressum
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© Lisa Baumgarten 2020–2025
The content of this page and my work, including texts, images, photos and videos, is for your personal and non-commercial use only. You may not download or reproduce the content for commercial purposes without my prior written permission. Merci Beaucoup.