Dowd to chair undergraduate design for 2025-26 academic year

“Our design program is considered among the best in the country,” Amy Hauft, director of the College of Art, said. “Doug brings important expertise to the helm including his long-time involvement with both communication design and illustration. I know he will sustain and build upon Aggie’s successes chairing the program. He is a great addition to our leadership team and I look forward to our work together.”

A writer, illustrator, and scholar, Dowd joined the WashU faculty in 1992. His research interests include the history of illustration, the practice of drawing, and the hybridity of reading and seeing. He teaches courses in both undergraduate design and in the MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture program. He is currently putting final touches on a “Reading Pictures: A History of Illustration,” which will be published by Princeton University Press in Spring 2026.

“What we call ‘design’ has continued to evolve in our society, and the same is true in the Sam Fox School,” Dowd said. “Building on momentum started under my predecessor Aggie Toppins, we are developing a new design history survey course, a longstanding need. I’m very excited about shepherding that initiative. Most of all I am eager to support my faculty colleagues in design.”

Dowd is also the faculty director of the Dowd Illustration Research Archive, part of WashU Libraries, which houses a large collection of 19th- and 20th-century illustrations and comics. Prior to his roles at WashU, he was a project leader at the Norman Rockwell Museum. He earned his undergraduate degree from Kenyon College and Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He succeeds Associate Professor Aggie Toppins following the completion of her five-year appointment.