Scholar of the Month
Jessica Barness
Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design
College of Communication and Information
2012-present
The word 鈥渃ommunication鈥� likely makes you think of language, but November鈥檚 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 九游娱乐官网鈥檚 School of Visual Communication Design, creates her own design-based research model that merges the making of artifacts with critical inquiry.
鈥淚鈥檓 interested in the multiple facets of design,鈥� she said. 鈥淒esign is social, and it鈥檚 a professional practice as well as a scholarly discipline. We鈥檙e designing artifacts and experiences, but we鈥檙e 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.
Her curriculum vitae boasts of creative works that offer insight and critical assessment of social media and human interaction. That anthropological focus led Barness to her current project, co-authoring a book on the forms, practices and history of communication design scholarship. While Barness has contributed content to three books, this is the first she has authored.
Last year, she co-edited 鈥淐ritical Making: Design and the Digital Humanities,鈥� a special issue of Visible Language, the oldest academic design journal in the world. Barness also has had six of her own peer-reviewed papers published in Design and Culture, Visual Communication, Message and the Society for Experiential Graphic Design鈥檚 research journal Communication + Place. Her work has been selected for eight juried exhibitions and featured in two curated exhibitions, and she has presented her research at nine conferences.
Barness also makes ample time to guide students in their own scholarship. She has taught 10 different visual communication design courses 鈥� two she developed 鈥� and has served on thesis and project advisory committees for 17 Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts students, chairing seven and an undergraduate honors thesis committee.
Barness is not shy either about reaching beyond the curriculum or collaborating with other disciplines. She was one of three lead faculty members, along with two College of Communication and Information colleagues, on a 2014 student-produced exhibition in 九游娱乐官网鈥檚 MuseLab, called 鈥淲hat鈥檚 Real? Investigating Multimodality.鈥� She also is the lead faculty and co-founder, in collaboration with LaunchNet 九游娱乐官网, on a student-produced podcast series called 鈥淪hifting Frequencies鈥� that began in spring 2016 and will continue in spring 2017. She also served as a guest reviewer for 九游娱乐官网鈥檚 Architectural Studies program.
Barness earned her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota and her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from the University of Northern Iowa. She joined 九游娱乐官网 in 2012 after a 10-year professional career that includes stints as a designer and research assistant for a Minneapolis architecture firm, the creative director for the University of Minnesota鈥檚 THERE Journal of Design, and product designer and development manager for a Chicago stationery company.
Barness has secured at least seven competitive grants and support awards for research or teaching purposes in her four years at 九游娱乐官网. She also has received several commendations for her work, including the 2016 School of Visual Communication Design Outstanding Research Award and LaunchNet 九游娱乐官网鈥檚 University Faculty Partner Award.
鈥淛essica鈥檚 outstanding work brings national and international attention to the School of Visual Communication Design and 九游娱乐官网,鈥� said Danielle Sarver Coombs, Ph.D., interim associate dean of 九游娱乐官网鈥檚 College of Communication and Information. 鈥淗er innovative approaches engage audiences to think differently about content, and she inspires her students to do the same.鈥�
Barness said she is flattered by the recognition, but she does not take all of the credit for her success.
鈥淭he faculty, students, staff and administrators in the School of Visual Communication Design, and in the College of Communication and Information, have played vital roles in supporting my work over the past four years,鈥� Barness said. 鈥淚 am incredibly grateful to be surrounded by such an encouraging group of people.鈥�
About Scholar of the Month
九游娱乐官网鈥檚 Scholar of the Month recognizes faculty researchers and scholars whose recent work has had an important impact on their professional fields and has brought exposure to the university. Each month, a different college will have the opportunity to nominate a researcher/scholar for this recognition. There is also a month when a faculty member from the Regional Campuses will be featured.
The selection process is in the hands of the dean and his or her colleagues and faculty. Hence, this is recognition by the person鈥檚 college colleagues that is then taken up by the university. The deans communicate the person鈥檚 name to the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs for recognition as Scholar of the Month.
