Teaching Position ‘Designing through ethnography’ in Eco-Social Design

For the MA Eco-Social Design we are looking for someone to teach the new course in “Designing through ethnography” as part of “Thesis Project Phase 1: Transformative Research through Design“.

Here is the call. Application deadline: 4.5.2026 at 12:00 (CET). If you have questions about the application procedure, please email Recruitment Design.

The course takes place in the winter semester 2026/27, starting in October 2026. The contract can be renewed two times, usually resulting in teaching the semester course for three years in a row.

The practice-based and transdisciplinary Master in Eco-Social Design is an educational framework for designers who aim to contribute to more sustainable, resilient and solidary futures. It supports students in developing their reflective practice by introducing students to challenges, partners, knowledges, instruments and strategies from diverse fields, which they draw together in their autonomous projects.
In Thesis Project Phase 1: Transformative Research through Design, students do the first part of the development of their thesis project. In this third semester, students choose and explore a topic, challenges or issues within a specific context, collaborating with various partners. They do literature review, case-study analysis, research-through-design and field research to explore their chosen topics. By means of practice-based experiments, interventions, failures and successes students develop the grounding of their thesis project and define their thesis project proposal. This lays the foundations for the subsequent elaboration of the final project and the written part of the Thesis. The course “Designing through ethnography” accompanies students in this process and offers a methodological and theoretical frame to pursue their research. It emphasizes understanding the lived experiences and perspectives of various actors, such as communities, institutions, and organizations, by exploring their challenges, potentials, and pathways for intervention through ethnographic inquiry. Besides relying on direct fieldwork, ethnographic understanding will be developed through a close reading of literature, enabling students to engage deeply with contextual narratives, social dynamics, and cultural meanings that inform design practice.