writing

WRITING

I write about gentrification, the problems with social design, and metaphors .

I also write about the accomplishments of people in my community.

BOOKS

Scheduled to be published in 2026, my upcoming book, co-authored with Lisa Burgland, brings gentrification scholarship to a design audience, presenting complex theoretical ideas in a format that can be easily understood and applied by working designers and design students.

We explain key topics in gentrification discourse in ways that are useful to design practitioners. We pair scholarship with interviews and illustrative case studies, to discuss the different factors that determine how gentrification is felt and experienced and how racial and socioeconomic divides are reinforced through the material world.

We offer a straightforward look at the role that designers play in gentrification, and provide tangible examples of ways that designers are working differently to resolve these complex issues and to bring about greater equity in design and development.

Lisa Berglund and Siobhan Gregory (2020): The Aesthetics of Neighborhood Change, Routledge, ISBN13: 978-0-367-89502-0

The Aesthetics of Neighborhood Change explores cultural shifts that result from gentrification and redevelopment, showing how cultures of racially and economically marginalized groups are appropriated or erased by the introduction luxury real estate and retail branding.

The book looks at the literal and symbolic shifts in ownership that are happening in urban locations undergoing redevelopment and demographic shifts. As lesser discussed manifestations of these shifts, cultural symbols of leisure, tourism, and elite consumption can be witnessed as cities work to reshape their landscapes through real estate, retail, and public space development.

Aesthetic changes often show up in the form of boutique coffee shops, distilleries, high-end restaurants, retail flagships, and more. Through careful branding and visual design, the new spaces and places become recognized as signs of exclusivity. This exclusivity also emerges in public spaces through local, informal retail practices like street vending, food trucks, and outdoor markets. As these changes take shape, more affluent groups replace and displace the cultural practices of existing groups. These changes send tangible, observable messages of neighborhood change which signal the race and class profiles of the desired incoming population who can afford to participate in the redeveloped landscape.

The book furthers a discourse on how to better observe and analyze signs of exclusion in the built environment, for scholars of community development, social mobilization, urban studies and design, and urban planning.

SCHOLARLY ARTICLES

Abstract: As professionally trained designers position their practices as central to social change, they bring with them efficiency in process, technical expertise, sophisticated aesthetic skills, and highly scripted narratives. In economically challenged cities like Detroit, creative professionals are hired to help transform neighborhoods that are described as abandoned, disorderly, and “blighted”. Residents of these neighborhoods are increasingly asked to engage in stakeholder meetings and design charrettes that promise greater inclusion and “a voice” in the process. These activities and interventions are sometimes framed as Design Thinking, human-centered design, or participatory design. However, as designer-adapted, re-contextualized anthropological methods, these approaches may ultimately diminish the value and understanding of applied anthropological enquiry. The author argues that design anthropology can offer a deeper, more grounded, and more equitable approach to design and design research processes in contexts of “urban renewal.”

Authenticity and luxury branding in a renewing Detroit landscape. Journal of Cultural Geography. Volume 36, issue 2 (2019) pp. 182–210. DOI: 10.1080/08873631.2019.1595913

Abstract: Emerging and establishing brands in Detroit regularly capitalize on the narrative of the city’s “comeback.” Many of these brands promote artisanal craftsmanship, nostalgia for an industrial past, and the repurposing of discarded materials as “authentic,” while others recast Detroit’s image as a place of subsistence and survival and as one of“grit” and“hustle.” Thus, the emerging image of a gentrifying Detroit is somewhat reliant on narratives of poverty and abandonment. These narratives are evident in the marketing materials used to sell luxury goods, services, and experiences. This article examines examples of digital and print marketing materials for Detroit-based product design and real estate development entities that illustrate how copywriting, imagery, and graphic design are brought together to deliver these messages.

What’s on the Surface: Aesthetic Divides in Signage, Muraling, and Other Forms of Surface Treatment in a “Renewing” Detroit Landscape. Progressive Planning Magazine. Fall 2005. No. 205. ISSN 1559-9736.

Abstract: As Detroit experiences re-investment of capital along with renewed attention from the creative sector, the landscape is not only reordered and restructured, but also resurfaced. This article is specifically concerned with the ways that surfaces in urban space become deliberate and subliminal platforms of visual messaging. Artists, activists, grassroots organizations, and community development groups, business owners, developers, architects, and planners allutilize surfaces to share unique and sometimes conflicting messages. These messages are sometimes literal, as in a billboard, sign, or graffiti artist’s tag. They are sometimes symbolic, as in murals visualizing mythology, nature, or technology, They are sometimes less obvious and corporeal as in the shimmer and reflectivity of new windows, the level of gloss of an exterior paint scheme, or the 3-dimensionality of crumbling brick or stone. All of these elements and more play into the ways that we intuitively understand space and place. Through an examination of surfaces, we can begin to see the role that surfaces can play in furthering tensions between what “belongs” in a renewing landscape and what doesn’t. As Detroiter’s adjust and re-acclimate in this current period of urban renewal, an examination of surface is one way tocritique how ideas of inclusion and exclusion are intentionally and unintentionally visually reinforced. This article introduces this topic by firstly addressing how the modernist, global aesthetic can serve to devalue or disregard the existing aesthetics of a place and examples ofhow this is playing out in through a few examples in Detroit. This article then looks at two key categories of surface adornment: the commissioned mural and the commissioned shop sign.

“Detroit is a Black Slate;” Metaphors in the Journalistic Discourse of Art and Entrepreneurship Detroit. Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC) 2012 “Renewal” Conference Proceedings. October 14-17, 2012.

Abstract: This paper was an investigation of metaphoric language in the contemporary discourse of Detroit’s “renewal.” News articles from local and national news sources from 2009-2011 provided evidence of critical and provocative metaphoric constructions found in the gentrification discourse of Detroit. As harbingers of gentrification, the discourse communities of artists and business
entrepreneurs were the focus of this review. I argued that metaphoric language in journalism must be critically evaluated and challenged to help ensure sustainable, equitable, and historically sensitive “renewal” of the city of Detroit and similar inner-city urban communities experiencing gentrification.

SPOTLIGHTS AND NEWS

For 3 years I published a department e-newsletter. I was responsible for all of the content. I interviewed, wrote, and edited all stories, which focused on student, alumni, and faculty accomplishments. Here are a few of those articles:

Graphic Designer and Musician Wesley Taylor, Emphasizes Design Justice, Community Building

Alumna Guneet Ghotra Brings Passion — and Community– to Start-Up UI/UX Design

Alumnus Clove Ellis Discusses Queer and Neurodivergent Advocacy Through Art

Monika Sinclair Builds Momentum for the Fashion Merchandizing Area

Graduate Mary Buchanan Brings Together Fashion, Art, and Healing

Art Department Gallery Brings to Life MFA and BFA Showcases

Alumna Kaleigh Blevins Explores Interiority in Black Experience

Mural Painting Class Brings Together Art, Medicine, and the Humanities at WSU

Faculty Member Madelaine Corbin Raises Climate Change Awareness Through Fiber Arts

I love this about being a teacher of a creative discipline. My purpose is for my students to shine through their work and through what we accomplish together.