Kate Catterall


Kate Catterall
Associate Professor, Department of Design
Affiliate Faculty, Department of American Studies, College of Liberal Arts
Member, American Associate of University Professors
Member, Texas State Employees Union

Phone: +1 512 471 0902
Email: katecat@utexas.edu
 
 

Kate Catterall is a designer and educator who studied at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. She is currently a design researcher and practitioner in Austin, Texas.

Initially trained in the materials and methods of the industrial age -- as a silversmith, product and furniture designer -- she started her career designing one-off products and environments for the luxury market in the United Kingdom. Catterall has lived in the United States since 1993 undertaking a broad range of projects through which she explores the history, form and cultural relevance of design in her new country. Her teaching focuses on the ethical dilemmas faced by designers (and society) as the far-reaching consequences of the design act and the broader role of the designer in culture are reassessed within the Anthropocene. Her current research utilizes the "design intervention" as an opportunity to reframe design as a central form of cultural production, positioning it as a practice that reaches well beyond commercial application; exploring the potential of designed artifacts as polemical tools capable of transforming actions, lifestyles and opinions.