Faculty | James Housefield
James Housefield
office: Walker 205
phone: 530.752.5324
email: jehousefield
James Housefield is a historian of design and visual culture. His background encompasses a broad range of global visual culture since the 18th century, with special interest in the relevance of historical creation to designers active today. Housefield is interested in exhibition design and the history of museums; he has experience as a museum curator. His research interests include the history of the logo, modern visual culture (with emphasis on France and her former colonies), and the intersection of visual culture with the ideas and practices of the discipline of Geography. He is at work on a book on "Marcel Duchamp as Modern Designer," and another on the visual culture of colonial and post-colonial Morocco (North Africa). Before his arrival at UC Davis, Housefield was the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities (2(530) 006-2009) at Texas State University-San Marcos, and a curator at the Austin Museum of Art. His teaching has been recognized with numerous awards from students and colleagues, including the Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence at Texas State. In 2006 he received the highest teaching award in the state of Texas, the Piper Professor Award. In his classes, Housefield seeks to connect the mind and the eye with the creating hand through an active and rigorous educational program.