Success Story
Scholar of the Month
Jessica Barness
Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design
College of Communication and Information
2012-present
The word “communication” likely makes you think of language, but November’s Scholar of the Month has spent her entire career researching design as a language of its own.
Across various media, Jessica Barness, an assistant professor in Kent State University’s School of Visual Communication Design, creates her own design-based research model that merges the making of artifacts with critical inquiry.
“I’m interested in the multiple facets of design,” she said. “Design is social, and it’s a professional practice as well as a scholarly discipline. We’re designing artifacts and experiences, but we’re also building the new knowledge necessary to inform and lead those activities. Research through design can be used to better understand people, phenomena, theories or technologies. By approaching design as a sort of hybrid practice, our students learn how to adapt to future needs within our society.
