Neeta Verma

Neeta Verma situates herself within the porous discipline of Visual Communication Design. Her areas of research and teaching explore the critical use of design as a tool for social equity and justice. Her work focuses on systemic social issues examined through the lens of power and privilege, and the examination of power structures embedded within social ecologies. She believes that as designers we have a responsibility toward a practice that is not just determined by “need” but more importantly by “relevance”. Her current research projects examine youth violence in urban contexts locally in South Bend and the design of conducive environments for the visually impaired in India. She teaches Social Design at the intersection of social innovation and collaborative practices, and Visualization of Data that investigates the aesthetics, ethics, and politics of representation.

She earned her MFA from Yale University and an MDes from the National Institute of Design, India. Currently, she holds Faculty Fellowships at the Center for Social Concerns, the Liu Institute for Asia & Asian Studies, and the Pulte Institute for Global Development at the University of Notre Dame. She is also appointed as Affiliate Faculty for The Initiative on Race and Resilience. Her professional design practice of over twenty-five years has exclusively focused on museums, cultural organizations, not-for-profits, and educational institutions. Selected clients include the American Red Cross, the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, Liberty Science Center, the New York Botanical Garden, The New York Public Library, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

She is the recipient of the Nehru-Fulbright Fellowship. Her work has been nationally and internationally recognized with awards that include the 365: AIGA Year in Design Award, Design Incubation Teaching Award, Graphis Awards, the Core77 Award for Design for Social Impact, A’Design Awards, DNA Paris, Print, International Design Awards, and the 2022 Rev. William A. Toohey, CSC, Award for Social Justice awarded by the University of Notre Dame. As an invited speaker, she has presented her research at both national and international conferences. She currently serves on the SEGD Academic Task Force and is a member of the Pluriversal Working Group of the Future of Design Education (FDE).