This graduate research methods and writing seminar covers different methods of historical research (book/journal/review of the literature, archival, and oral history interviews), as well as quantitative and qualitative approaches useful for researching contemporary topics. We will read the writing of others (selections from 20th-century design history topics) in order to study the methods of research the authors used to construct their arguments and historical narratives. We will examine case studies of particular moments in American design over the past century in which the authors interweave the history of design with the history of ideas about race, class, gender, progress, privilege and power, as derived from design’s social, cultural, political, and economic contexts. We will also analyze the works we read for their writing, and develop your own writing on design both through the development of a lengthy research paper (it may pertain to your thesis research) as well as short critical responses to contemporary design.