Lisa Baumgarten [she/her] is a critical design mediator – a designer, researcher, writer and teacher/learner. She understands critical in its political sense: as attentiveness to how design practice, education, and mediation are entangled with structures of power — and to how they might also challenge them.
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 in collaboration with changing contributors.
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 in collaboration with changing contributors.
Since 2017, Baumgarten has been teaching design theory and practice as adjunct lecturer at German and international design universities. Her recent professorial positions include interim professor for Design Theory at the University of Applied Sciences Mainz (WS 2024/25), guest professor in the Studiengruppe Informationdesign at Burg Giebichenstein, University of Art and Design Halle (Oct 2022–Aug 2023), and interim professor of Design Sciences at the Institute of Design Research at Braunschweig University of Arts, where she taught in the M.A. Transformation Design and B.A. Design in der digitalen Gesellschaft programs (Oct 2021–Sep 2022).
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.
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 varying co-facilitators she offers a lecture/workshop format for design educators and faculty staff focusing on discrimination-critical approaches to design education.
Baumgarten is a PhD Candidate at the University of Koblenz in the Department of Cultural History & Theory/ Art Didactics /Aesthetic Education supervised by Prof. Dr. Silke Ballath. Her current research develops a framework for critical design education, mapping how institutional and non-institutional design educational formats in Europe put theories critical of power into pedagogical practice, drawing on critical art mediation, intersectional-feminist, and decolonial approaches.
Baumgarten’s research and writing has been published and presented amongst others at By Design and by Disaster Conference (Bolzano), 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 as well as form design magazine.
Baumgarten is a PhD Candidate at the University of Koblenz in the Department of Cultural History & Theory/ Art Didactics /Aesthetic Education supervised by Prof. Dr. Silke Ballath. Her current research develops a framework for critical design education, mapping how institutional and non-institutional design educational formats in Europe put theories critical of power into pedagogical practice, drawing on critical art mediation, intersectional-feminist, and decolonial approaches.
Baumgarten’s research and writing has been published and presented amongst others at By Design and by Disaster Conference (Bolzano), 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 as well as form design magazine.
Upcoming
24.–26.6.2026
Lecture, “Doing difference together? A mapping of power-critical discourses in and about design education”
at AMPS Conference, A Focus on Pedagogy 2026 – Madrid
21.–23.5.2026
Keynote lecture, “x preliminary criteria for a power-critical design pedagogy”, at By Design and by Disaster Conference 2026, BASIS, Schlanders-Silandro, South Tyrol, Italy
→ Find the lecture’s bibliography here.
Workshop, “Training for Transformation” with Teresa Palmieri
at By Design and by Disaster Conference 2026, BASIS Schlanders-Silandro, South Tyrol, Italy
11.5.2026
Workshop, “Diskriminierungskritisches Lehren und Lernen im Design”
with Lisa-Marie Fechteler and teachers and staff of the faculty of design at HTW Berlin
Selected recent activities
3.–4.7.2025
Response to and Workshop with Doctoral Candidate Amanda Unger
as part of the research project symposium “Designgeschichte(n) der Schweizerischen Bundesbahnen (SBB)”
Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Switzerland
6.–8.8.2025
Presentation of an Exploratory Paper at NORDES Design Conference 2025,
Oslo Metropolitain University, Oslo, Norway
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
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)
24.–26.6.2026
Lecture, “Doing difference together? A mapping of power-critical discourses in and about design education”
at AMPS Conference, A Focus on Pedagogy 2026 – Madrid
21.–23.5.2026
Keynote lecture, “x preliminary criteria for a power-critical design pedagogy”, at By Design and by Disaster Conference 2026, BASIS, Schlanders-Silandro, South Tyrol, Italy
→ Find the lecture’s bibliography here.
Workshop, “Training for Transformation” with Teresa Palmieri
at By Design and by Disaster Conference 2026, BASIS Schlanders-Silandro, South Tyrol, Italy
11.5.2026
Workshop, “Diskriminierungskritisches Lehren und Lernen im Design”
with Lisa-Marie Fechteler and teachers and staff of the faculty of design at HTW Berlin
Selected recent activities
3.–4.7.2025
Response to and Workshop with Doctoral Candidate Amanda Unger
as part of the research project symposium “Designgeschichte(n) der Schweizerischen Bundesbahnen (SBB)”
Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Switzerland
6.–8.8.2025
Presentation of an Exploratory Paper at NORDES Design Conference 2025,
Oslo Metropolitain University, Oslo, Norway
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
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
︎
Featured on/in
Missy Magazine 03/2021
AIGA Eye on Design
Hurra Hurra Podcast – Episode 03 on Spotify
Weltformat Magazine Not (yet) Cancelled Varese Design Week 2020, with Benedetta Crippa
Posterwxman, 2019
Previous lectureships and teaching engagements in MA and BA Design programs at:
Mainz University of Applied Sciences
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
View Privacy Policy
© Lisa Baumgarten 2020–2026
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.
via e-Mail
or on social media
︎
Featured on/in
Missy Magazine 03/2021
AIGA Eye on Design
Hurra Hurra Podcast – Episode 03 on Spotify
Weltformat Magazine Not (yet) Cancelled Varese Design Week 2020, with Benedetta Crippa
Posterwxman, 2019
Previous lectureships and teaching engagements in MA and BA Design programs at:
Mainz University of Applied Sciences
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
View Privacy Policy
© Lisa Baumgarten 2020–2026
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.