Faculty

Michele Gorman is the Professor of Interiors, Objects, and Technology at Parsons School of Design. With 18 years of experience as a design educator, her work centers on radical inclusion, access, decarbonized and decolonized design practices, and mixed realities (AR/AI) to address social and environmental justice. As a co-founder of the Radically Inclusive Studio and the Spatial Inclusion Lab, she advocates for open-access pedagogical and design practices and non-hierarchical design environments.

Gorman is a pioneer in integrating immersive technologies into the design studio, exploring how tools like augmented reality and artificial intelligence can democratize agency and authorship, innovating design as an agent of social change.  Professionally, Gorman has designed award-winning multimedia exhibitions and interior spaces for clients including the Public Theater, Target, and Green-Wood Cemetery.

Her research initiative, the Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party series, creates collaborative spaces that foster "radical belonging" while addressing the global climate crisis through regenerative practices. Collaborating with Industrial Designer, Yvette Chaparro, and Textile Designer, Preeti Gopinath, they have exhibited on Governors Island and Parsons School of Design in NYC and at RMIT for Melbourne Design week and conitnue to publish and host workshops.

As an interior designer, architect and technologist, Gorman co-curated and designed the recent Parsons exhibition Making Space as Matrix, which reflects on second-wave feminist architectural practices—specifically the work of Susana Torre and the Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative. This project pushes forward discussions on non-hierarchical, co-designed practices and feminist design legacies. Her commitment to feminist space is further reflected in her work with the collective ArchiteXX, for whom she has designed award-winning multimedia objects and exhibitions like Now What?! Advocacy, Activism, and Alliances in American Architecture since 1968.

She holds a Master of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BS in Interior Design from the University of North Carolina. Her upcoming research continues to investigate inclusive design strategies  and the future of generative and immersive technologies in design.

Masters of Architecture, Rhode Island School of Design

Architecture study abroad, China Academy of Art

BS Interior Design (magna cum laude), University of North Carolina

Interior Design study abroad, Manchester Metropolitan University

(upcoming) Gorman, Michele (2026) Inclusive Studio Ecologies: Toward Radical Belonging in Interior Pedagogy for The Routledge Companion to Human-Centered Interior Design, edited by William Mangold, Tina Patel, Kendra Ordia, Rana Abudayyeh, Routledge.

(upcoming) Gorman, Chaparro, Gopinath (2026). The Dinner Party as Circular Rehearsal Systems of Decay and Repair Design, An Incomplete Atlas of Death and Dying Architectures, edited by Dr. Harriet Harriss and Noami House, Taylor Francis.

Mapping Food Design through Phygital Food Systems: chapter contribution: A Decolonized Decarbonized Dinner Party.Co-authored with Yvette Chaparro and Preeti Gopinath. (Taylor Francis, in press 2025) 

Gorman, M., Chaparro, Y., Gopinath, P., (2025) A Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party, vol. 3. New York: Parsons / The New School.

Gorman, M., Chaparro, Y., Gopinath, P., (2024) A Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party, vol. 2. New York: Parsons / The New School.

Gorman, M., Chaparro, Y., Gopinath, P., (2022) A Decolonized & Decarbonized Dinner Party. New York: Parsons / The New School.

Gorman, Michele, Morkel, Jolanda, Delport, Hermie Voulgarelis, & Burton, Lindy Osborne (2021) The Radically Inclusive Studio: An open access conversation on radically inclusive practices in the architectural design studio. In Salama, Ashraf, Harriss, Harriet, & Gonzalez Lara, Ane (Eds.) The Routledge Companion to Architectural Pedagogies of the Global South. Routledge. 

The New School Library link, for enrolled students and faculty, to download chapter

Companion website: theradicallyinclusivestudio.org 

Gorman, Michele, Morkel, Jolanda, Delport, Hermie, & Burton, Lindy Osborne (2021) The Radically Inclusive Studio: An Open Access Conversation on Radically Inclusive Practices in the Architectural Design Studio. Wordpress. 2020

Additional Radically Inclusive Studio publications:

Delport, Hermie, Morkel, Jolanda, Gorman, Michele, & Burton, Lindy Osborne (2023) Design Studios for Sustainable Cities and Communities: A Radically Inclusive Perspective. In Ike, Obiora, Ekué, Amélé Adamavi-Aho, Singh, Divya, & Usher, Jane (Eds.) Leading Ethical Leaders: Higher Education, Business Schools and the Sustainable Development Goals. Globalethics Publications, pp 451 - 519. (For the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: sustainable cities and communities)

Delport, Hermie Voulgarelis, Burton, Lindy Osborne, Morkel, Jolanda De Villiers, & Gorman, Michele (2022) Inclusive Spatial Practices for Professional Education: Exploring the Architectural Design Studio. In Malebo, Ntsoaki & Behari-Leak, Kasturi (Eds.)

Morkel, Jolanda, Delport, Hermie, Burton, Lindy Osborne, & Gorman, Michele (2021) The Radically Inclusive Studio: Unsettling Paradigms. In Unsettling Paradigms: The Decolonial Turn in the Humanities Curriculum in South Africa, 2021-08-10 - 2021-08-11.

Delport, Hermie Voulgarelis, Morkel, Jolanda De Villiers, Gorman, Michele, & Burton, Lindy Osborne (2021) Observations and Provocations: Towards Inclusive Online Design Feedback and Assessment Practices. In Education Academy Remote Teaching Workshop, Dublin, Ireland.

2020 HELTASA Conference: Creating Enabling Learning Spaces for All. Vol. 1. [ 2020 ed.]. Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA), Bloemfontein, South Africa, pp. 82-84.

Additional publications:

Goman, M., Masimova, M., (2023), "Embracing Kinship: Interconnected Interiors in the Metaverse. Creating spaces of connection through dialogues on emerging topics on the metaverse and belonging". Inside.inside.