The Center for Design and Material Culture is a hub for innovative, interdisciplinary research across all three of the Center’s pillars: the study of textiles, material culture, and design. Center affiliates and staff collaborate with scholars from across campus and around the world to develop multi-year research projects that address complex problems.
Featured Projects
Our research takes many forms. These three projects reflect our commitment to developing new knowledge around material culture, design, and the study of textiles. “Material Histories of Home Economics” reflects the new research on the role of material culture in schools that were the precursor to the School of Human Ecology. It features the original scholarly contributions of more than twenty researchers at all career stages. For the past five years, the newly named “Pathways: A Toolkit for Educators, Designers, Researchers, and Consumers on Understanding Design Sovereignty and Cultural Appropriation” program has offered tools for designers and design educators to support and talk about design sovereignty. Featured at the American Alliance of Museums annual meeting and published in Museum Magazine, this resource has served hundreds of design students and their instructors. The “Artificial Flowers Project” connects the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s remarkable Special Collections. This project reframes an eighteenth-century instruction manual on creating artificial flowers through the lens of the Textile Collection, asking major intellectual questions about object-based knowledge and the possibilities of practice-based research.
Material Histories
Material Histories of Home Economics, Center for Design and Material Culture Research Workshop, 2021-2022.
Pathways Workshop
In the 2018-2019 academic year, the Center for Design and Material Culture began developing a workshop aimed at understanding design sovereignty and avoiding cultural appropriation, and empowering participants to engage with diverse cultural materials more thoughtfully.
The Artificial Flowers Project
The Artificial Flowers Project aims to translate, examine, and digitize a small and intriguing manuscript from the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Department of Special Collections, as well as reconstruct some of the recipes within.
How to Connect
Students
UW students can connect with the center in a number of ways including visiting the galleries or collection, viewing our exhibits or collection online, or working with us through fellowships, student hourly, and PA positions.

Instructors
We encourage instructors to utilize the center as a resource to enhance their coursework. We offer individualized collection and gallery visits by appointment and work with instructors to tailor the visit to the needs of the class.

Researchers
The center supports research through a number of resources and opportunities. Whether you're a student, faculty member, or researcher from outside UW, we work with a range of people and institutions to support shared research goals.
