Lauren Williams

Lauren Williams is a Detroit-based designer, researcher, and educator who works with visual and interactive media to understand, critique, and re-imagine the ways in which social and economic systems distribute and exercise power. Her work seeks to expose and unsettle power and often prioritizes engaging people through design in service of imagining and manifesting a more equitable present and future. She’s currently full-time faculty teaching in the Communication Design BFA and Interaction Design MFA programs at the College for Creative Studies. Lately, much of her work revolves around Blackness, identity, bodiliness, and social fictions and examines the ways in which racism is felt, embodied, and embedded into institutions.

From 2010 – 2016, Lauren led numerous initiatives aimed at addressing economic inequality while working at Prosperity Now: Qualitative research studies, federal and state policy advocacy efforts, and program-related partnerships with community-based organizations.

Lauren received her MFA in Media Design Practices from Art Center College of Design and holds a BA in Economics / Global Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.