About
Freyja Hartzell is Associate Professor, Director of Masters Studies, and Editor of 'West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture' at Bard Graduate Center, an advanced graduate research institute in New York City dedicated to the cultural histories of the material world. She teaches the history of modern design, architecture, and art with a focus on European and American material culture from 1750 to the present.
Her research centers on the dynamic relationship between humans and objects, examining how designed things shape and are shaped by cultural, social, and political contexts. Hartzell's work spans European design from the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries, with particular expertise in German design and cultural politics, object agency, materiality, and dolls/toys as significant cultural artifacts. Her approach emphasizes close examination of material forms and their historical meanings to understand broader cultural significance.
Hartzell's scholarly output reveals a consistent focus on German design history, particularly the work of Richard Riemerschmid and interwar period design. Her publications demonstrate a sophisticated exploration of transparency in glass design, material politics, and the philosophical dimensions of objects. A notable thematic thread connects material substances (wood, glass, textiles) with their cultural and political meanings across different historical periods.
- Richard Riemerschmid's Extraordinary Living Things (MIT Press, 2022)
- Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies fellowship
- German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) support
- National Endowment for the Humanities grant
- Corning Museum of Glass research support
- 2022 Grants to Individuals
Hartzell actively mentors graduate students through the MA and PhD programs at Bard Graduate Center, with courses including 'In Focus: Welcome to the Dolls' House,' 'Living Things: Biology & Design in the Long Nineteenth Century,' and 'Doll Parts: Human Forms in the History and Theory of Design.' She is currently developing 'Dollatry: Designing Likeness,' a book exploring dolls, puppets, and robots as sites for examining subject-object relations, alongside a related exhibition scheduled to open at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery in February 2025. Her research on disability representation in dolls was recently featured on Jonathan Van Ness's podcast 'Getting Curious.'
