Carma Gorman, Associate Professor and Assistant Chair of the University of Texas at Austin, will give a lecture on Thursday, March 30, 2017, at 6:15 pm in room 200, Riley Hall of Art. The title of Dr. Gorman's talk is "Just What Is It That Makes U.S. Design So Different, So Appealing?”
Associate Professor Carma R. Gorman earned a B.A. in art history at Carleton College in 1991 and a Ph.D. in the history of art at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998. Gorman is a member of the board of directors of the College Art Association, an associate editor of the journal Design and Culture, and a past president of the Design Studies Forum.
Gorman’s primary-source anthology The Industrial Design Reader (2003), which Richard Buchanan described as “an essential text in design history courses,” appears on reading lists at numerous U.S. and foreign universities. She has published reviews and articles on U.S. design of the long twentieth century in American Quarterly, Design and Culture, Design Issues, Journal of Design History, Studies in the Decorative Arts, and Winterthur Portfolio. Her American Quarterly article on body mechanics and streamlining was one of ten essays reprinted in the Organization of American Historians’ anthology The Best American History Essays 2008. Gorman is currently writing a book that surveys American design from 1890 to the present, focusing on the ways in which the USA’s legal system, and particularly its unique configuration of intellectual property law, has shaped American design.