Dr Elise Hodson
- Co-academic Lead
- Design Futures MDes
Dr Elise Hodson is a design researcher and educator whose work brings together design culture and practice with a focus on global production networks and social sustainability.
As a school-wide senior tutor, Elise teaches in AcrossRCA and the Grand Challenge, two interdisciplinary and cross-programme units. She has taught on MA Design Products and is contributing to the development of MDes Design Futures. She is a member of the NEMO project (New Economic Models for the Ocean), part of the RCA’s research as a UNESCO Ocean Decade Implementing Partner.
Elise holds a PhD in communication and culture (York University, Toronto), master’s degrees in design history (Bard Graduate Center, NYC) and museum studies (University of Toronto), and a BA in classical studies (University of Ottawa).
Elise has worked for over two decades in design schools and museums, managing academic programmes and research projects, creating exhibitions, developing curricula and forming international partnerships. She has taught at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels, most often on subjects related to design for social change and design culture.
Her previous roles include Chair of the School of Design at George Brown College in Canada; Program Coordinator of the post-graduate Interdisciplinary Design Strategy programme at the Institute without Boundaries; and Director of Exhibitions at the Design Exchange, Canada’s former design museum. Prior to joining the RCA, Elise was a Post-doctoral Researcher in Design Economies in the NODUS Sustainable Design Research Group at Aalto University in Finland.
Elise writes about design and global value chains, follow-the-object methods, participatory design, social impact and the value of design, design and social sustainability, design education, design history and museums.
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Research interests
Elise studies design culture – the objects, practices and discourses of design, and how they connect people and locations within global production networks. By following products through their value chains and life cycles, she builds a picture of design work as distributed and collaborative, involving actors and sources of expertise rarely credited in design. She looks at what mass-produced goods represent in terms of design’s role in post-industrial and industrial settings, and what they say about changing ideas of place, local knowledge, identity and responsibility. Elise is interested in design’s potential to intervene in global systems of production, particularly from the perspective of social sustainability.
Design and social innovation run throughout Elise’s research. She has worked on a variety of community engagement and participatory design projects in collaboration with design educators and students. She was the primary investigator on a four-year project about crisis planning with youth in one of Canada’s most culturally diverse regions, and she has written about the power dynamics of co-design with vulnerable groups. As a post-doctoral researcher, Elise looked at the social value and impacts of design. This led her to investigate, with colleagues, the evaluation of social impacts in smart city initiatives.
At the RCA, Elise is combining these interests through her work on the NEMO project. The team is exploring how natural and human-made ocean objects connect coastal communities around the world. The aim is to bring together scientific data with a deeper understanding of human relationships to the sea. The project addresses Ocean Decade Challenges related to ecosystems, biodiversity, and sustainable and equitable ocean economies.
Research funding
Erasmus Staff Mobility, Aalto University (2022) to visit the Cultural and Historical Geographies Research Group, University of Exeter
Online Pilot Project Funding, Aalto University (2020) to develop the online course “Design Culture Now”
Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Community & College Social Innovation (2015-19) (primary investigator) to run a participatory design project about holistic crisis planning with youth, design students and community organisations
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Innovation Enhancement Grant (2017- ) (team member) to develop the Design Centre for the Smart Economy at George Brown College
Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure project grant (2014) and Ontario Centres of Excellence Seed Grants (2008) to support design research projects with students and industry partners at the Institute without Boundaries
Ontario Graduate Studies scholarship (2011, 2013) to support doctoral research at York University
ArtsVest, Business for the Arts (2013) and Toronto Arts Council, Visual Arts Projects (2013) (co-applicant) to support themed Art Now exhibitions at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
Ontario Arts Council, Visual Arts Projects (2012) (co-applicant) to support the independent curatorial project “Pre-Occupied”
Bonnie Cashin (2008) and Prendergast (2008) travel grants to conduct research in India while studying at the Bard Graduate Center
Department of Canadian Heritage, Museum Learning Spaces (2006) and Museum Assistance Program (2004); Canada Council for the Arts, Visual Arts Project (2004) and Japan-Canada Fund (2004, 2002); Ontario Arts Council (1999, 2002); and Department of International Trade, Program for Export Market Development (2002, 2005) to support design exhibitions, programming and export initiatives at the Design Exchange
Current and recent projects
UNESCO Ocean Decade and NEMO
Elise is part of the research team supporting the RCA as a UNESCO Ocean Decade Implementing Partner. This research connects scientific data to community actions and includes the New Economic Models for the Oceans (NEMO) project in collaboration with coastal communities.
DoCS4Design (2021–22)
This Erasmus+ project (2020-23) involves six HEIs (TU Delft, Politecnico di Milano, Aalto University, Imperial College London, Carnegie Mellon University and Illinois Institute of Technology) with the goal of disseminating best practices for doctoral education in design. At Aalto, Elise contributed to research about the social impact of design research by doctoral students and graduates.
Mellow (2015–19)
This collaborative design project involved design students and faculty at George Brown College, with youth, service providers and community organisations to develop a digital tool that helps youth to manage crisis and access resources in one of Canada’s most culturally diverse regions. Elise was the primary investigator on this project, which was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Publications
Amaral, C. Hodson, E., Dowson, C. and Webster, D. (2023) ‘Material-led thinking as a practice of care: a strategy from art and design education’, in Connectivity and Creativity in times of Conflict. Cumulus, Antwerp: University of Antwerp.
Hodson, E., Svanda, A. and Dadashi, N. (2023) ‘Whom do we include and when? Participatory design with vulnerable groups’, Co-Design, pp. 1–18.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2022.2160464.
Hodson, E., Vainio, T., Nader Sayún, M., Tomitsch, M., Jones, A., Jalonen, M., Börütecene, A., Tanvir Hasan, M., Paraschivoiu, I., Wolff, A., Yavo-Ayalon, S. and Young, G.W. (2023) ‘Evaluating Social Impact of Smart City Technologies and Services: Methods, Challenges, Future Directions’, Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 7(33), pp. 1–32. https://doi.org/10.3390/mti7030033.
Julier, G. and Hodson, E. (2022) ‘Design and Value Diversity’, in A. Valtonen and P. Nikkinen (eds) Designing Change New Opportunities for Organisations. Aalto ARTS Books, pp. 120–125.
Gaziulusoy, I., Veselova, E., Hodson, E., Berglund, E., Erdogan Öztekin, E., Houtbeckers, E., Hernberg, H., Jalas, M., Fodor, K. and Ferreira Litowtschenko, M. (2021) ‘Design for Sustainability Transformations: A Deep Leverage Points Research Agenda for the (Post-) Pandemic Context’, Strategic Design Research Journal, 14(1), pp. 19–31.
Hodson, E., Morais, A.-R., Pandolfi, C. and Daam-Rossi, H. (2021) ‘Whose Common Good? Ideals and Challenges in Academic Programs Focused on Social Design’, in M. Botta and S. Junginger (eds) Design as Common Good /Framing Design through Pluralism and Social Values. Swiss Design Network Symposium 2021 Conference Proceedings. Switzerland: University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, SUPSI Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, HSLU, pp. 1124–26.
Julier, G. and Hodson, E. (2021) ‘Value, Design, Scale: Towards a Territories and Temporalities Approach’, in E. Brandt et al. (eds) Proceedings of Nordes 2021: Matters of Scale. Kolding, Denmark: Designskolen Kolding, pp. 96–103.
Vainio, T., Hodson, E. and Nader Sayún, M. (2021) ‘Decoding the Smart City, Themed Section and Preface’, Interaction Design & Architecture(s) – IxD&A Journal, (50), pp. 59–62.
Hodson, E., Nader Sayún, M. and Vainio, T. (2020) ‘Decoding the Smart City’, in NordiCHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Shaping Experiences, Shaping Society. Decoding The Smart City, ACM, pp. 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1145/3419249.3420076.
Hodson, E. (2019) Design in Motion: The Everyday Object and the Global Division of Design Labour. Dissertation. York University. https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/handle/10315/36271.
Hodson, E., Dadashi, N., Delgado, R., Chisholm, C., Sgrignoli, R. and Swaine, R. (2019) ‘Co-design in mental health; Mellow: a self-help holistic crisis planning mobile application by youth, for youth’, The Design Journal, 22 (sup1), pp. 1529–1542. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2019.1594975.
Hodson, E. (2017) ‘‘I could have visited Ikea for free:’ design museums and a complicated relationship with commerce’, in A. Myzelev (ed.) Exhibiting Craft and Design: Transgressing the White Cube Paradigm, 1930–Present. Routledge, pp. 140–159.
Hodson, E. (2016) ‘Exhibiting Independent India: Textiles and Ornamental Arts at the Museum of Modern Art in New York’, in P. Sparke and F. Fisher (eds) The Routledge Companion to Design Studies: Transnational and Global Design Volume. UK: Taylor and Francis, pp. 493–507.
Hodson, E. and Mousavi Hejazi, B. (eds) (2016) Transformation: The Changing Nature of Design Education in the 21st Century. 2015 Design Educators Conference Proceedings. Toronto: Registered Graphic Designers.
External collaborations
(2022-23) Paper Chair, Media Architecture Biennale 2023
Peer review for: Design and Culture; She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation; Nordes, Nordic Design Research conference; Journal of Design Research; EAD; IASDR