Assistant Professor of Industrial Design, Pratt Institute
Within just four years at Pratt Institute, Amanda Huynh’s influence has been significant, from introducing the living land acknowledgment to her exceptional leadership in IDSA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. As the faculty advisor for Pratt's IDSA Student Chapter, Amanda has elevated the student experience by organizing impactful programs, connecting them with industry professionals, and nurturing their growth. She co-founded Edible Projects, a food experience studio emphasizing inclusivity, sustainability, and community building. Her projects have gained recognition, including the DesignTO Juror's Choice Award and being a finalist for the Pratt Institute Distinguished Teacher Award.
One of Amanda’s nominators said “I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to work with such a kind, understanding, hard-working, and passionate Professor. Her devotion to her students never ceases to amaze me.”
Amanda Huynh, IDSA 黃珮詩, Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute, has accomplished a great deal in 2021. In addition to serving as a leader on IDSA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DEIC), she completed the first of her two years as an International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) juror and continues to oversee the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the Pratt ID department, reporting on goals and accomplishments at the Institute level. This year, Amanda also became the Faculty Advisor for the Pratt IDSA Student Chapter—receiving a torched passed by esteemed colleague Karen Stone, IDSA, a 20/20 Recognitions recipient.
Notably, Amanda is the first woman of color in a full-time post in Pratt’s Industrial Design program. She got there as a first-generation student and continually strives, she says, “to be what I myself did not have through my own educational and professional career.” She advocates for “change from the inside” and “empowering the students to feel confident and successful in our field.”
A marker of change from her perspective has been seeing students become increasingly interested in projects larger than themselves and their immediate communities. Following the violent attacks on the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community this year, Amanda made space for her students and fellow design educators “to process what it meant to be fearful for ourselves and our colleagues.” In April 2021, Amanda served as the moderator for the AAPI-focused IDSA Race in Design event, which you can watch on the DEIC’s page here.
Thinking back on the beginning of 2021, Amanda recalls “an incredibly uncertain time,” in which she taught “partly in person, masked, and with students who were keen and engaged through it all.” This line of teaching and learning inspired a new line of research, building on her previous work in equitable design research practices. Amanda worked remotely with colleagues at the University of Washington and University of Colorado Boulder, prototyping technologies for co-design with physical distance, and found that virtual gatherings allowed her to lecture more widely than ever before.
“Monthly IDSA DEIC calls also buoyed me through many dark months,” Amanda says. “They have been equal parts productive committee meetings as they have been virtual spaces of community and new friendships.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, Amanda started a weekly newsletter called Design in the Time of Corona as a way to provide company for her students while they were all in isolation. Each issue features a short essay and reflections on the week; a series of interesting and fun links; and job, internship, and fellowship listings (largely sourced from the IDSA community!) “I’m fast approaching issue #100 and we’ll see what the new iteration will be,” she says.
Amanda continues to be energized by her students and their powers as industrial designers to make an impact. “At Pratt, and in Industrial Design in particular,” she notes, “I believe the 2D and 3D representation curriculum teaches the necessary aesthetic sensibilities that students can then use in service of moving the dial towards a more equitable future.”
