11 March 2021
APPOINTMENT OF ENDOWED PROFESSOR/WIM CROUWEL CHAIR AT UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM
Dr. Alice Twemlow has been appointed as the endowed professor/Wim Crouwel Chair in the History, Theory and Sociology of Graphic Design and Visual Culture at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam.
This new position, the ‘Wim Crouwel Chair’, was established by the Wim Crouwel Institute (WCI), a foundation dedicated to making the rich heritage of Dutch graphic design widely accessible for research and education. Dr. Twemlow will perform this position in addition to her continuing roles at the University of the Arts in The Hague (KABK) and Leiden University.
Dr. Alice Twemlow is internationally recognized for her work as a scholar, educator and critic and her active engagement in many aspects of contemporary design culture. Her historical research has focused on design criticism, waste, and consumption of graphic design. She also investigates the relationship between design and time, experimental publishing, critical and speculative design and the nature of design and artistic research and methodologies.She is currently Research Professor (Lector) at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague, where she heads the ‘Design and the Deep Future’ research project. She is also associate professor at the Academy for Creative and Performing Arts at Leiden University where she supervises PhD candidates in the PhDArts programme.
Previously, she was head of the master Design Curating & Writing at the Design Academy Eindhoven. And prior to that, she founded an MA in Design Research, Writing & Criticism at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
The Wim Crouwel Chair is part of the Book Studies chair group at the Faculty of Humanities (UvA). There Twemlow will contribute to the educational offering with lectures and seminars on the history, theory and sociology of graphic design and visual culture, available to all master students. She will also supervise students in Book Studies who would like to specialize in graphic design and follow this track through to graduation. In addition, Twemlow will supervise PhD candidates, conduct and disseminate her own research related to the graphic design collections, and represent the professorship in international research networks.
The endowed chair is of great importance to the Wim Crouwel Institute, because, to date, in the Netherlands, the history, theory and sociology of graphic design and visual culture have been insufficiently represented as subjects of scientific inquiry at the university level. Following in the footsteps of its namesake the pioneering Dutch designer Wim Crouwel, the Wim Crouwel Institute wants to encourage rigorous academic research into graphic design and thereby to enhance the visibility and relevance of this discipline in the Netherlands and internationally.
The chair was created in collaboration with the Faculty of Humanities (UvA), the Allard Pierson – the collections of the University of Amsterdam, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The graphic design collections of both institutions will be frequently used for educational and research purposes within the framework of this chair.
The endowed chair has been made possible by financial contributions from the General Social Fund for the Graphic Industry and the Pictoright Fund. The Association of Dutch Designers (BNO) wholeheartedly supports the chair.
For more information, please contact Harriët van der Veen (coordinator Wim Crouwel Institute): H.J.vanderVeen@uva.nl telephone: 06-41206166 or Rob Huisman (chairman of the Wim Crouwel Institute): mail@robennietsanders.nl telephone: 06-51368933