EMPLOYMENT
Assistant Professor
University of Florida School of Art + Art History
(August 2019 – )
Affiliate faculty, Center for Arts, Migration & Entrepreneurship
Assistant Professor
Ohio University School of Art & Design
(August 2015 – May 2019)
Assistant Professor
University of Southern Mississippi Department of Art & Design
(August 2012 – May 2015)
Visiting Assistant Professor
University of Florida School of Art & Art History
(August 2010 – May 2011)
EDUCATION
PhD / Design history, theory, + criticism
Arizona State University (May 2010)
Dissertation: “Reading Maps, Writing Landscapes: Cartographic Illustration in Arizona, 1912-1962”
MFA / Graphic design
University of Florida (May 2006)
Thesis project: “Near Here: Locating History in St. Augustine’s Tourist Landscapes”
BFA / Graphic design
University of Tennessee, Chattanooga (May 2003)
Honors thesis: “Typography, Transparency, and Deconstruction”
PUBLICATIONS / Books
Type Specimens
Bloomsbury Academic Press (Spring 2022, forthcoming)
Mapping Wonderlands: Illustrated Cartography of Arizona, 1912 to 1962
University of Arizona Press (Fall 2013)
PUBLICATIONS / Chapters
“Teaching Design History & Social Change” in Teaching Graphic Design History, edited by Steven Heller (Allworth, 2019)
“The British Isles for Boys and Girls: Gendered Geographies in Late Nineteenth Century Travelogues for American Youth” in Literary Tourism and the British Isles: History, Imagination, and the Politics of Place edited by LuAnn McCracken Fletcher (Lexington Books, 2018)
PUBLICATIONS / Journal Articles
“Teaching Designers to Write” with Gaby Hernandez
Dialogue: Decipher, v.1 (2020)
“How to See Japan: Japan Tourist Bureau Guidebook Images for Interwar Anglophone Tourists”
Journal of Design History (2018)
“Visualizing Eco-dystopia”
Design & Culture (2018)
“Beautiful Geography: The Pictorial Maps of Ruth Taylor White”
Imago Mundi (2017)
“Doctoral Education in (Graphic) Design”
Dialectic (2017)
“The Role of Visible Language in Building and Critiquing a Canon of Graphic Design History”
Visible Language (2016)
“Posters for Public Health”
Journal of Communication Design (2016)
“Moving Beyond ‘Just Making Things’: Design History in the Studio and the Survey Classroom”
Visible Language (2013)
“George Avey, Arizona Highways, and Popular Cartography,”
Journal of Arizona History (2011)
“Czech Book Covers of the 1920s and 1930s”
Smithsonian Institution Digital Library Feature Selection
(2004, with head librarian Stephen Van Dyk) / link to article
EDITORIAL
Design and Culture
Associate Editor for Statements of Practice and Pedagogy (2018—)
Visible Language
Guest editor, special issue (2018)
BOARD MEMBERSHIP
AIGA of Gainesville, Florida
Education director (2020—)
Digital Humanities Board, University of Florida
Board member (2019—)
SELECTED AWARDS
College of the Arts Scholarship Enhancement Grant
University of Florida, 2020 ($4500)
College-level award to support archival research and image subvention fees for Type Specimens.
Educators Award for Published Research
Design Incubation, 2019
Peer-reviewed national award “acknowledging original and innovative contribution to the communication design discipline in the form of published research,” recognizing my editorial work for Visible Language.
Baker Award
Ohio University, 2019 (awarded; $9000)
Externally peer reviewed, university-level research fellowship; awarded to support archival research and image subvention fees for Type Specimens.
Design Incubation Fellowship
Design Incubation, 2017
Residental, juried fellowship; held at St. John’s University, Manhattan
Cary Fellowship
Rochester Institute of Technology Libraries, 2015
Cary Graphic Arts Collection
Summer Grant for Improvement & Development of Instruction
University of Southern Mississippi Office of the Provost, 2014
Southwest Book of the Year
Arizona Historical Society and Pima County Library, 2013
Mapping Wonderlands named a 2013 Southwest Book of the Year
Graduate College Dissertation Fellowship
Arizona State University Graduate College, 2009-10
University Graduate Scholar Fellowship
Arizona State University College of Design, 2006-9
Alumni Fellowship
University of Florida School of Art + Art History, 2003-6
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
UCDA Design Education Summit
June 2020 (virtual)
Teaching & Learning in Digital Archives (chair)
SHIFT: AIGA Design Educators Conference
August 2020 (virtual)
Teaching Graphic Design History (invited panel)
Design History Society Conference
“Visualizing Immigration to the United States” (paper)
Northumbria University, Newcastle UK, September 2019
Mapping Grand Canyon Conference
Keynote address, “Cartoon Maps of Canyonland”
February 2019, Arizona State University
College Art Association Annual Conference
“Decolonizing Design Education” (invited panelist)
February 2019, New York City
Decipher: AIGA Design Educators Conference
September 2018, University of Michigan
“Teaching Designers to Write” session co-chair with Gaby Hernandez
Design History Society Conference
September 2017, Oslo, Norway
“Imaging Popular Eco-dystopias” (paper)
Converge: AIGA Design Educators Conference
June 2017, University of Southern California
Using Digital Archives to Teach Global Design History (workshop)
College Art Association Annual Conference
February 2017, New York City
“Teaching Design History through Making” (session chair)
“How to See Japan” (paper)
College Art Association Annual Conference
February 2016, Washington DC
“Posters for Public Health” (paper)
Design History Society Conference
September 2015, San Francisco, California
“The World United: Picturing Intercontinental Air Travel, 1927-52” (paper)
Southeastern College Arts Conference
October 2014, Sarasota, Florida
“Design Educators as Principal Investigators” (session chair)
Design History Society Conference
September 2014, Oxford, England
“Conflicting Views: Print Propaganda Depicting Tourism in a Landscape of War” (paper)
Connecting Dots: AIGA Design Educators Conference
March 2014, Cincinatti, Ohio
“Design and the Doctorate: A Call for Participation in the Disciplinary Discussion Surrounding Doctoral Education in Design” (paper)
Southeastern College Arts Conference
October 2013, University of North Carolina Greensboro
“Relevant Histories: Connecting the Past to Contemporary Practice in the Undergraduate Design History Classroom” (paper)
Head, Heart, Hand: AIGA National Conference
October 2013, Minneapolis, Minnesota
“How to Wrap Your Head around the Question of Relative Merit: Teaching Students to Evaluate Their Design Solutions” (paper)
Blunt: AIGA Design Educators Conference
April 2013, Old Dominion University
“I Just Want to Make Things: Defining the Problem – What Is the Role of Design History in Graphic Design Education?” (paper)
Popular Culture / American Culture Association Conference
March 2013, Washington DC
“Gendered Geographies: Geographical Illustration in 19th Century Travel Literature for Children” (paper)
National Endowment for the Humanities /
Arizona Humanities Council Road Scholar
2010-2012 program years, throughout Arizona
Public educational humanities programming on visual culture and tourism
Popular Culture / American Culture Association Conference
April 2011, San Antonio, Texas
“Gay Geographies: American Cartographs, 1920-1950” (paper)
Arizona / Nevada History Convention
April 2010, Laughlin, Nevada
“George Avey, Arizona Highways, and Popular Cartography” (paper)
Winner of the Bufkin Award for research in cartography
Florida Historical Society Annual Conference
May 22-24, 2008, Sarasota, Florida
“The Development of Tourism Maps in St. Augustine, Florida”
Winner of the Chapin Award for Young Scholars
TEACHING EXPERIENCE / DESIGN STUDIOS:
Graphic Design Studio I, III (ART3510, 4510; ART441)
Advanced graphic design studios with emphasis on sustained project work and portfolio development. Ohio University, University of Southern Mississippi.
Book-making (ART492)
Special topics course encompassing both basic book-binding skills and experimentation with using the book as a format for visual communication. University of Southern Mississippi.
Typography (ART342/ART2520/GRA2202)
Introductory typography studio with an emphasis on understanding type in the contexts of image, letter, text, and grid. University of Southern Mississippi, Ohio University, University of Florida.
Advanced Typography (GRA3209)
Junior studio with an emphasis on complex typographic problems, systems-level solutions, and multi-platform deliverables. University of Florida.
Illustration (ART344; GRA3198)
Traditional and non-traditional approaches to image-making, with an emphasis on concept development and experimental use of media. University of Southern Mississippi, University of Florida.
Graphic Design III (ART343)
Beginning graphic design studio exposing students to holistic problem-solving involving decisions related to typography, image, and delivery platform. University of Southern Mississippi.
Digital Visualization (ART311)
Introduction to vector-based design software and digital image-making strategies. University of Southern Mississippi.
Graphic Design Principles (ART2510)
Introductory design studio with a focus on understanding the relationship between form, meaning, and technologies of production. Ohio University.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE / DESIGN HISTORY:
Histories of Graphic Design (ARH4930/5930)
Senior/graduate seminar, with exposure to primary texts and emphasis on global case studies; the social uses of designed images, objects, and interfaces; and competing theories of design praxis. University of Florida.
History of Graphic Design Survey (ART415)
Lecture and discussion, with emphasis on understanding the social context of design practice and reading historical design works critically. University of Southern Mississippi.
Design & Identity in Everyday Life (IDS2935)
Asks how design works to shape, understand, and communicate personal and cultural identity in everyday life. Explores how designed environments, objects, and interfaces inform concepts of self and society. Uses global case studies and collaborative design-thinking activities as tools to interrogate design’s form, function, and philosophy. University of Florida.
Graphic Design History & Social Impact (ART2501)
Introductory survey with an emphasis on understanding the social context of design practice and encountering a global range of objects, images, and ideas. Ohio University.
History of Decorative Arts (INT412)
Senior/graduate lecture. Arizona State University.
History of Textiles (INT413)
Senior/graduate lecture with seminar component. Teaching associate, Arizona State University.
History of the Interior I and II (INT310/311)
Junior interior design history survey lecture. Teaching associate, Arizona State University.
History of Graphic Design I and II (GRA111/112)
Introductory design history survey lecture. Teaching associate, Arizona State University.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE / GRADUATE SEMINARS
Visual Communication Design Seminar (GRA6930)
Graduate seminar focused on framing research questions, developing co-design methods, and practicing visual and scholarly dissemination through design-writing. University of Florida.
Research & Practice (GRA6931)
Integrates research and practice to address complex problems within diverse contexts using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methods appropriate for an expanded practice.
Graphic Design Studio (ART5200/6200; GRA6933)
Graduate seminar focused on individual project development. Ohio University, University of Florida.
Graphic Design Seminar (ART6500)
Graduate seminar focused on the evolution of design as a practice, profession, and academic discipline. Ohio University.
Digital Media for Art Educators (ART5930)
Online graduate course introducing new media tools, theories, and strategies. University of Florida.
dori griffin : design research 