Danielle Aubert

Danielle Aubert is Professor of Practice in the Arts at the University of Chicago's Department of English, where her work bridges graphic design practice, writing, and critical analysis of production labor in print and digital media.

Education:

• M.F.A., Yale University, 2005

Her research centers on the material conditions of graphic production, examining how software, equipment, and labor practices shape design outcomes within political movements and community contexts. She investigates typography's socio-political dimensions, print materiality, and the history of book production with emphasis on radical publishing traditions and reader interactions with texts.

Her publications reveal consistent engagement with community-driven design practices and the politics of reproduction, spanning historical analysis of 1970s leftist printing cooperatives to contemporary digital media experiments. This trajectory demonstrates interdisciplinary methodology combining archival research, artistic practice, and critical theory.

Awards:

• Fellow in the Creative and Performing Arts, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University
• Kresge Award (2021)

Aubert's pedagogy integrates studio practice with critical theory through courses like 'Graphic Design and Social Movements' and 'Advanced Typography,' emphasizing design's role in labor movements and technological evolution. Her co-curation of the 2021 Cranbrook Museum of Art exhibition demonstrates sustained collaboration with art institutions to contextualize design history within broader cultural narratives.