Esther KangAssistant Professor of Design Studiesshe/her/hers

My research examines local infrastructure that upholds design and technological practices to interrogate how they (re)produce social inequities, ecological degradation, alternative practices, and forms of contestation. By understanding their social and ecological implications for low-income communities, the intention of this work is to translate its politics to support equitable and sustainable community-based efforts in land-use, governance, and service delivery. My scholarly work largely situates design as a tool to instigate positive systems-level change as well as a site for critical reflection. Through this framework, I define design as deliberate decisions made to construct and organize civic life. This humanistic interdisciplinary work sits at the intersection of critical design theory, urban humanities, and feminist science and technology studies.

My current community-engaged project focuses on the social implications of hyperscale data center proposals for low-income or rural communities in Wisconsin. Selected projects include: 1) oral history project documenting residents’ lived experiences; 2) community archive preserving resident-led activism; and 3) manuscript on design’s unique role in shaping the acceleration of these proposals.

I also lead the Design Civics Lab, an interdisciplinary group that produces empirical, conceptual, and practice-based work through thoughtful and strategic community partnerships. (The site will be available summer 2026.)

This body of work builds upon 12+ years of practice as an award-winning civic designer, strategist, and researcher. In this capacity, I integrated design methods to cross-disciplinary and cross-sector projects that aimed to increase participatory processes in governance, planning, and service delivery. This work took place at the federal, congressional, state and municipal levels across the U.S., including a one-year term under the Obama administration. Lines of inquiry developed through this body of work fundamentally inform my scholarship, teaching, and mentoring.

Selected Publications

Kang, E. Y. (2024). Legible for Whom? Decentering the Dichotomy of Center and Periphery. Diseña, (25), Essay 1.

Kang, E. Y., & Fox, S. E. (2022). Stories from the Frontline: Recuperating Essential Worker Accounts of AI Integration. DIS ’22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 58–70. (Best Paper Honorable Mention)

Kang, E. Y. (Forthcoming summer 2026). The Politics of Place-based Design: An Inquiry into a Worldbuilding Practice. In Urban Humanities 2: An (Un)Volume on Place, Pedagogy, and Practice.

Kang, E. Y. (Forthcoming summer 2026). Unsettling Boundaries: Accounting for Social Histories in Participatory Design. Temes de Disseny.

For a full list of publications, see Kang’s CV.

See Also

• Teaching resource
  • (Un)packing Innovation: Histories of Social Design and Civic Design in Practice
    • Developed through the Chicago Designs Workshop and Residency, funded by the Terra Foundation