DRS 2024 at MIT: Writing on Design—Data, Design, & Publishing

What are different modes of writing about design, and what may be diverse conceptions of the book as a design medium?
Catherine D’Ignazio and Dietmar Offenhuber’s recent explorations of the interrelations between data and design help reveal the ways in which diverse social collectives, from scientists to activists, can engage with the design and representation of data.
D’Ignazio, author of Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action (MIT Press, 2024), and Offenhuber, author of Autographic Design: The Matter of Data in a Self-Inscribing World (MIT Press, 2024) will present their latest books in a conversation moderated by MIT Press Executive Editor Gita Manaktala.

Catherine D’Ignazio is a hacker mama, scholar, and artist/designer who focuses on feminist technology, data justice and civic engagement. She has run women’s health hackathons, designed global news recommendation systems, created talking and tweeting water quality sculptures, and led walking data visualizations to envision the future of sea level rise. Her 2020 book from MIT Press,, co-authored with Lauren Klein, charts a course for more ethical and empowering data science practices. Her second book, Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action (MIT Press, 2024) is an extended case study about grassroots data activism to end gender-related violence. D’Ignazio is an Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT where she is the Director of the Data + Feminism Lab.

Gita Manaktala is Executive Editor at Large at the MIT Press, a publisher of research and scholarship at the intersection of the arts, sciences, and technology. Known for intellectual daring and distinctive design, MIT Press books push the boundaries of knowledge in fields from architecture and the arts to the sciences, technology, and social sciences. Until recently, she served as the Press’s Editorial Director, where she worked with a team of acquisitions editors to build its distinguished books program across the full range of subject areas, a position she held for 14 years. Manaktala has also served the Press as its marketing director with responsibility for worldwide sales, promotion, and publicity. She is a member of the Beacon Press Advisory Board and has served on the board of directors of the Association of American University Presses. She is a frequent speaker on topics in scholarly communication and publishing.

Dietmar Offenhuber is a designer and urban planner in the College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University in Boston. He was educated as an architect in Vienna, Austria before receiving his MS and PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the relationship between data and design in the social context. Offenhuber is the author of the award-winning monograph “Waste is Information” (MIT Press) and has published books on urban data and accountability technologies. His new book “Autographic Design – the Matter of Data in a Self-inscribing World” examines material visualization practices and the production of evidence.

Host or Publisher MIT Morningside Academy for Design