Archana Shekara

Biography

Archana Shekara is a Professor of Graphic Design, Co-Director of Ethnic Studies Program, and Creative Director of Design Streak Studio, a research based social innovation lab focusing on human centered service design at Illinois State University. She is the Coordinator of the Graphic Design partnership with Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University and Tianhua College of Art + Design at Shanghai Normal University.

Shekara has twenty-six years of professional experience designing for diverse industry clients. She uses design as a tool to build cross-cultural understanding, humility, acceptance, and respect. As a socio-cultural researcher, she has been investigating transnational identity by understanding racial equity through a brown lens and and creates cultural awareness using auto-ethnographic narratives. Shekara’s innovative teaching methodologies and research have been featured in peer reviewed national and international academic and professional publications, and conferences including Association Typographique Internationale (AtypI), Typography Day, Digitally Engaged Learning (DEL), MODE Summit, College Art Association (CAA), Society of Experiential Design (SEGD), Electronic Visualization and the Arts (EVA) London, Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), AIGA Design Educators Conference, and UCDA Design Educators Summit. She has reviewed several graphic design tenure and promotion dossiers from various universities, and conducts community building workshops based on diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has served as a graduate thesis advisor for Heron School of Art and Design at Indianapolis. She recently started the national South Asian American Design Educators Alliance to bring South Asian American perspectives into mainstream conversations in Design

Shekara received an MFA in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BFA in Painting from the State University of New York in New Paltz. She joined the faculty at Illinois State as an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design in the fall of 2009. Shekara received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Graphic Design in 2015, and promotion to full Professor of Graphic Design in 2022.


Area(s) of Specialization:
Typography, Branding, Human/Equity-Centered Service Design, Publication Design, Packaging Design, Experience Design and Motion Graphics