Overview
Background
Dr Charlotte Kessler is a transdisciplinary Design Researcher and Lecturer in Design. She sees design as a powerful change-making tool relevant to addressing complex issues, and applicable across a variety of contexts.
Charlotte holds a Bachelor & Master in Product & Service Design (ENSAAMA & Ecole Boulle, France), a Master in Design Futures (Griffith University), and a PHD (Queensland University of Technology) completed in 2022. Her thesis, Developing curricula that equip designers with capabilities to enact sustainable futures: A matter of ethos, draws from the voices of academics and graduate designers from four sustainability-focused design programs internationally to propose theoretical guidelines supporting design educators to develop, enable and sustain design programs that are responsive to a rapidly changing world, in turn equipping design graduates with relevant capabilities to create change towards sustainable futures.
Charlotte has worked on a range of sustainability-focused design and design research projects internationally. Her research is situated at the nexus between design, education, and sustainability. She believes that design education has an important role to play in situating design as key, change-making practice, in the context of sustainability transitions. She is interested in research that informs academics as they develop and implement sustainability-centred curricula and pedagogies, and that supports sustainability transitions in design practice. Charlotte has recently become involved in a research project on climate literacy in architecture in partnership with the Australian Institute of Architects, and the Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia.
Charlotte is currently working as Lecturer in Design in the School of Architecture, Design, and Planning at The University of Queensland. Previously, she was the Program Convenor for Design and Educational Design Lead at Griffith College, where she coordinated the accreditation and curriculum development processes for the new design program. Charlotte has developed and coordinated sustainability-focused higher education courses in the design field across multiple universities. She has taught in award winning courses including Impact Lab 3 Studio - Planet (QUT) awarded Vice Chancellor Award for Excellence and Wharton - QS (London) Re-Imagine Education Award for Design for Transformative learning through transdisciplinary collaborations, along with the Spatial History Unit awarded QUT Faculty of Creative Industries Teaching Award for Teaching Innovation and Excellence. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She specialises in developing sustainability-centred Higher Education curricula and professional development resources for academic staff.
Availability
- Dr Charlotte Kessler is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Product Design, École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliques et des Métiers d'Art Olivier de Serres
- Masters (Coursework) of Product Design, École Boulle Paris
- Masters (Research) of Design, Griffith University
- Doctor of Philosophy of Design, Queensland University of Technology
Research interests
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Design for Sustainable Futures
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Design Education
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Design Pedagogy
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Curriculum Development
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Sustainability
Works
Search Professor Charlotte Kessler’s works on UQ eSpace
2024
Conference Publication
Enacting sustainability-centered design curricula: the role of ethos in translating educational goals into pedagogy
Kessler, Charlotte and Rieger, Janice (2024). Enacting sustainability-centered design curricula: the role of ethos in translating educational goals into pedagogy. 2024 Design Research Society (DRS) Conference, Boston, MA USA, 23-28 June 2024. London, United Kingdom: Design Research Society. doi: 10.21606/drs.2024.740
2023
Other Outputs
Climate action in Australian architectural practice: 2022 industry survey results
Brogden, Liz, Gonsalves, Kavita, Oldfield, Philip, Kessler, Charlotte, Knapp, Chris, Stead, Naomi, Reinhardt, Dagmar, Engelhardt, Gina and Iftikhar, Naima (2023). Climate action in Australian architectural practice: 2022 industry survey results. West End, QLD Australia: Architecture Climate Futures.
2022
Other Outputs
Climate literacy and action in architecture education: Australasian perspectives
Brogden, Liz, Iftikhar, Naima, Oldfield, Philip, Stead, Naomi, Kessler, Charlotte, Knapp, Chris and Reinhardt, Dagmar (2022). Climate literacy and action in architecture education: Australasian perspectives. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia.
2022
Journal Article
Doing dis/ordered mappings: shapes of inclusive spaces in museums
Rieger, Janice, Kessler, Charlotte and Strickfaden, Megan (2022). Doing dis/ordered mappings: shapes of inclusive spaces in museums. Space and Culture, 25 (1), 4-19. doi: 10.1177/1206331219850442
2022
Other Outputs
Developing curricula that equip designers with capabilities to enact sustainable futures: a matter of ethos
Kessler, Charlotte (2022). Developing curricula that equip designers with capabilities to enact sustainable futures: a matter of ethos. PhD Thesis, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology. doi: 10.5204/thesis.eprints.235591
2018
Journal Article
Re-connecting design, education, and sustainability: the essential role of research in higher education curriculum development
Kessler, Charlotte (2018). Re-connecting design, education, and sustainability: the essential role of research in higher education curriculum development. International Journal of Sustainability in Economic, Social and Cultural Context, 14 (1), 15-24. doi: 10.18848/2325-1115/cgp/v14i01/15-24
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Charlotte Kessler is:
- Available for supervision
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Media
Enquiries
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