Associate Professor Carolyn Barnes

Biography

Associate Professor Carolyn Barnes (PhD Melb 2004) is Academic Director of Research Training in the School of Design, Swinburne University of Technology, where she teaches qualitative research methods for academic and practice applications. Her research investigates the knowledge and power bound up in individuals and groups to address their needs and interests in the development of communications and services, including via participatory design methods and the role of the designer-facilitator. Recently, this has extended to understanding design in the 'pluriverse' through the investigation of grassroots, problem-solving practices, the sustainability of traditional crafts and a focus on practices in their own right rather than conceptualising them in relation to Euro-USA professional design. Carolyn has supervised 26 students to the completion of the doctorate.