Cynthia Lawson

Teaches at Q.E.D.

Cynthia Lawson is a Brooklyn-based Colombian digital artist, technologist and educator. Cynthia is Associate Professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design. She has held a variety of leadership roles at The New School including, most recently, Interim Vice President and Associate Provost for Open Campus (2016-17). 

An internationally exhibited artist, her current research focuses on the DEED Research Lab, which she co-founded in 2007 and currently directs. DEED (which stands for Development Through Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Design) brings together students, faculty, and external partners from business, design, development, and policy to model more equitable ways for designers to work with artisans, and for artisans to sustain their livelihoods. 

Lawson has lectured internationally on design, education, technology, and social practice. Prior to joining academia full-time, Lawson worked as an educational technologist in Bogotá and at Columbia University’s Center for New Media Teaching and Learning. As a consultant she has worked with international organizations such as CARE and the World Bank. Lawson has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá) and a Master’s in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University’s ITP.