Prof. Çiğdem Kaya

Born and raised in Istanbul, Cigdem Kaya is professor of industrial design and also chair at Istanbul Technical University’s (ITU) Industrial Design Department. She received PhD in Industrial Design from ITU in 2011, MFA in New Genres from San Francisco Art Institute in 2006 in the US and BSc in Industrial Design from ITU in 2003. She has been a visiting researcher at Art and Design Research Center at Sheffield Hallam University, UK in 2008. In her research, Kaya works on vocational and experiential knowledge in industrial design at the intersection of contemporary art and craft to foster criticality in professional practice. Besides this, she has been a practicing artist exhibiting internationally since 2003. Kaya is a Fulbright and Marie Skłodowska Curie alumna. In 2021, she has been awarded with one of the most prestigious research national awards METU Prof.Dr. Mustafa Parlar Foundation’s Research Encouragement Award for emerging researchers for mobilizing industrial design for social innovation and sustainability.