Eco-Humanities Research Group - Announcements

Spring and Summer 2026 Eco-Humanities Research Group Lecture Series Programme

Thursday 12th March: 4.00-5.15pm (in person lecture)

Venue: ORB 2.12 (O’Rahilly Building 2nd Floor, Room 2.12), UCC Campus

Kelly Salchow MacArthur (Michigan State University)

Engaging Visual Culture: Eco-Activism Through Graphic Design

Eco-activist design hopes to contribute to (and sway) the ongoing dialogue of environmental urgency that is often met with inaction. Utilizing powerful tools of visual communication, urgent responsibility rests on the shoulders of designers to prioritize critical topics through clear and inspiring messages for the public. Design can serve as the conduit between science and society, abstraction and clarity, singular work and collaborative systemic effort, and inaction and action. My teaching, research and practice over the past 20 years has explored various communication design strategies—humanistic appeals to reconnect oneself with nature, disturbing statistics meant to instigate response, logical calls to action, aesthetic presentation of biophilia, visualization through concrete poetry, community mapping in partnership with an ecological organization, making through green processes and foraged materials, etc. The body of work varies in method, message, and material—yet maintains the commonality of environmental principles and goals of resilience. This lecture will present an arc of environmentally focused creative research which aspires to demonstrate benefits and impact, while instigating future cross disciplinary collaboration and cooperation.

The lecture will lay the groundwork for a subsequent event which will take place on Thursday 26th March for Green Week, Haptic and Biophilic: Green Collage Workshop, jointly organised by the UCC Eco-Humanities Research Group and the Green Campus Committee.

Kelly Salchow MacArthur is a Professor of Graphic Design at Michigan State University (MSU), a 2-time Olympic rower, a 2-time Olympian Artist, and a Member of the IOC's Culture and Olympic Heritage Commission. She is an Honorary Visiting Researcher in UCC's School of Education through to June 2026. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design with Honors from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design Magna Cum Laude from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. Before joining the faculty at MSU, she taught at Kansas City Art Institute, RISD and The College of New Jersey.

Kelly’s graphic design practice and creative research focuses on environmental awareness, advocacy and action. Her work has been disseminated internationally through exhibition, design awards, conference, and publication, and is included in several permanent collections. She is President Emerita of the international design organization, United Designs Alliance and AIGA Detroit. She is a former member of the UCDA Design Educator's Advisory Committee, and CAA's Committee on Intellectual Property. Kelly initiated the AIGA Get Out The Vote: Empowering the Women’s Vote national poster initiative to commemorate 100 years of the women’s vote in 2020. She is a recipient of MSU’s Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Service for her green mapping projects with Monroe County.