nicole killian appointed to Yale School of Art faculty in Graphic Design

The Yale School of Art is pleased to share that nicole killian will join the faculty as Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design in the Fall of 2026. killian explores the overlaps between publishing, platforms and pedagogy, with an approach that considers objects as containers for language that get activated when read, passed, held, and handled. Their publishing initiative, nico fontana, focuses on elevating queer and trans people while using publishing as an opportunity to gather.

Before coming to Yale, killian spent thirteen years at Virginia Commonwealth University teaching in Graphic Design and directing the MFA program. “We are excited to welcome nicole killian to the core faculty and to the broader community of scholars, practitioners, and educators shaping the future of the department,” Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design and chair of the search committee, shared. “Killian exemplifies the department’s core values of rigorous exploration, experimentation, independent research, and collaboration. A leading voice in contemporary pedagogy and curricular innovation, her work engages timely discourse around the discipline. Her openness to diverse research topics and experimental form fosters an environment of inquiry, criticality, and creative engagement. killian has a sustained commitment to mentoring both graduate and undergraduate students as well as junior faculty. Grounded in a clear positionality, killian models what it means to be a practitioner whose work is intellectually rigorous while remaining committed to collective care, generosity, and collaborative practice.”

Past teaching appointments have been at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the College for Creative Studies. killian holds degrees from Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Rochester Institute of Technology. killian has been invited to speak at Typographics 2025, Royal College of Art in London, Estonian Academy of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Rhode Island School of Design, and Kunsthall Stavanger and has exhibited at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, CAVE, Arcadia Missa, Sadie Halie Projects, and Whitney Museum of American Art. Select writings of killian’s have been published in After the Bauhaus, Before the Internet: A History of Graphic Design Pedagogy, Amalgam, Overflow Journal and Journal of Feminist Scholarship, among others. killian also served as editor for the Walker Art Center’s Soundboard: “How Will We Queer Design Education without Compromise?”

The School of Art would like to note the thoughtful and dedicated work of the selection committee: Henk van Assen, Gregory Crewdson, Marta Kuzma, Mae-ling Lokko, and Nontsikelelo Mutiti (chair).