Professor Gene Bawden

Gene Bawden is a professor, communication designer and Head of Department (Design).

Gene has over twenty-five years’ experience as a communication designer and design educator, and has a unique capability as a design thinking facilitator. At Monash University, he has played central roles in design education and course development, including initiating and leading a major review of the Bachelor of Design; the development of MADA’s design thinking curriculum and the delivery of a tailored design thinking program for the Monash School of Business’ MBA.

As founding director of D-Lab, Gene has developed the design thinking process into a robust and self-reflexive process, while honouring its heritage in design practice. Leading a team of researchers and facilitators, D-Lab delivers bespoke material tools of enquiry around design thinking processes and research, including workshops and resources for internal and external clients. This is an area of investigation that is increasingly part of Gene’s expanding area of design education research.

Gene is also a founding member of the Faculty’s XYX Lab, which affords him the opportunity to combine his knowledge of gendered spatial practices and his communication design expertise within collaborative research projects aimed at mitigating gender inequity in Australia’s urban environments.

Gene’s other areas of research and design practice investigate material, visual and spatial narratives of belonging. Specifically, he interrogates the design of Australian domestic spaces as highly charged representation of cultural belonging, social alignment and gendered expectation. His book, Comfort and Judgement: Nineteenth Century Advice Manuals and the Scripting of Australian Identity, published by Monash University Publishing, is due for release in late 2019.

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