Hajira Qazi

WELCOME

I am a design researcher / instructor / scholar.
Welcome to my online portfolio.

 
 
 

My name is Hajira Qazi. I am a design researcher, instructor, and scholar with a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) School of Design.

My design work and practice has explored design’s role in the interplay between social, political, spiritual, and material worlds. Although design is often understood to manifest materially, I am fascinated by the more subtle impact of design—that which is enacted in the immaterial and in the in-between—where bonds, actions, ideas, values, and beliefs are enabled or disabled, strengthened or weakened, by design.

My dissertation, entitled “Design and the (Un)Making of Sacred Worlds,” juxtaposes the traditional and modern worldview and the forms of worldmaking that result. Past work and research interests include participatory design, decolonization, and design for political change.

As a doctoral researcher at CMU, I taught both undergraduate and graduate level courses, including “Research Methods for Design;” “Cultures,” a course that considers design through the lens of critical theory; and “Decoloniality: Past, Present, and Future.”

In January 2023, I taught a four-session course entitled “Foundational Theories of Islamic Design” at the Deen Arts Foundation.


An abbreviated CV detailing my educational and teaching background can be viewed here.