In this issue, we expand the Academia 360° column (introduced in Spring 2021) into a complete collection of essays that illustrate the complicated and multidimensional reality in which design academia resides. This includes addressing head-on the topics of equality, equity, diversity, wellness, and work culture in industrial design education, to name a few. In many ways, this is a continuing of the conversation started in the Winter 2020 issue, Education Interrupted, which attempted to broach such topics as keeping pace with professional practice and the shifting industrial design landscape, dismantling biased institutional norms of “good design,” and creating a system that provides equitable access to quality educational opportunities. At the end of the day, all of these have a direct impact on the quality of education a student receives and on the first impressions a young designer digests at the earliest stages of their career.
