As a current design PhD student, I find it disheartening to see that we are still having this kind of discourse around a strict separation between scholarly and professional practice - I came to do a PhD after almost 7 years of professional practice and still practice from time to time as a freelancer, and most of my colleagues and friends who are getting their PhDs in design come having years of industry experience.
In fact, the whole reason for why I chose to pursue a PhD in design over anthropology or science and technology studies was because of the interweaving of practice and deep, scholarly reflection on that practice with the intent of changing the practice, which are things you don't get to do with a pure humanities or social sciences degree.
I don't see how insisting on upholding a traditional, conservative status quo of a neat distinction between scholars who do pure research or teaching and practitioners who do design work in the studio based on "this is the way it has always been done in other disciplines" is helpful - it certainly isn't true for a whole generation of design PhDs in training right now, and it deters designers considering a PhD from taking it up in a field where we certainly need more PhDs, not less. Don't we want people teaching in design programs who can both design well and think and do research in a rigorous, scholarly manner?
I would hate it if I finished and my entire professional experience and ability as a designer was dismissed on the basis of my having a PhD. Just my two cents,
Ahmed Ansari
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