ABOUT




Giorgia Pisano (she/her)
A Melbourne-based lecturer and creative practice researcher specialising in social and ecological sustainability. Her teaching and research focus on interdisciplinary design praxis — open, emergent, and inclusive processes that integrate collaboration across design disciplines and with community partners, particularly in the areas of disability and social innovation.





I acknowledge the Wurundjery Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the lands and waterways where I live and work. I also acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

CV





Education
PhD of Design, RMIT University
2023

Diploma of Furniture design and making, Holmesglen 
2018

MS, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
2015

BS, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
2012



Employment Lecturer and Program Coordinator of Industrial Design at Monash Art, Design and Architecture.
2024 - ongoing

Lecturer, RMIT
2020 - 2023



PhD focusHer research investigated waste, environmentalism, and the role of design in both contributing to and addressing ecologies of exclusion. Her work challenged the default reliance on technical solutionism in response to complex socio-environmental issues. 

As a design thinker and maker, Giorgia has developed a praxis of theorising through craft —via ‘thinking artefacts’, metaphorical stratagems, and conceptual intuition pumps. Her approach embodies a mode of conducting inquiry that bridges experiential making with critical reflection to generate new methods for socially engaged design practice.



Education focus
In design education, she uses the studio as a site of experimentation—exploring how heutagogical approaches, positionality, and intersectionality can cultivate creative capacities for addressing wicked problems. 



Current researchRole of AI in design education.

Pedagogies of repair through interdisciplinary and community collaboration.

Material thinking as a methodological tool.

Giorgia is a member of WonderLab at MADA and welcomes HDR supervision in collaborative design, complex social research, and inclusive methodologies — particularly those engaging with neurodiversity, gender, and cultural diversity.



Press ‘Building Empathy Through Experience: MediStays Shares Accommodation Knowledge with Monash University Students’, Article by MediStays.
2025

‘Si disegna con gli altri, non per gli altri’. Il Globo newspaper, Article by Lisa Cardelli.
2025

‘Monash graduate’s design helping everyday heroes’, Article by Monash.
2024

Winner - Monash Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – WonderLab.
2024

Featured in ‘Conversations in Design’. Australian Wood Review, Issue 105.
2019



Last Updated 24.10.31