KÖHLER, MARIE

1) Why are you researching or studying at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar?    

I chose the Bauhaus University in Weimar for my research project because it offers me the opportunity to further develop my artistic research practice and try out different research methods for myself and my research.           

2) What is special about your project? Why is it relevant?           

My doctoral research critically examines design practices that, as the thesis suggests, continue to contribute to stereotyping and hegemonic narratives – particularly in the foundational courses in design education. These practices not only reinforce existing power structures and systems of domination but also perpetuate them within society. This study explores whether the teaching of traditional image practices in design studies fosters prejudices, biases and blind spots in student training and examines how these issues can be critically assessed from critical of gender, power-critical and decolonizing perspectives.

The project responds to the growing diversity in post-migrant societies and the internationalisation of higher education. It addresses these evolving conditions and the related discourses on participation, inclusion and teaching. 

The focus of my doctoral project is to develop new approaches and methods that identify and challenge Eurocentric and neocolonial structures in knowledge dissemination. Additionally, it seeks to highlight the importance of a multi-diverse narrative style in visual media and to expand it through alternative perspectives and narrative practices. To achieve this, the study incorporates relevant intersectional and decolonial theories and approaches that offer valuable insights for both teaching and design.