Dina Benbrahim ︎دينا بنبراهيم
︎ is a Moroccan multidisciplinary creative, educator, organizer, and researcher, based in CT, who uses an intersectional feminist lens to dissent and investigate design for visibility, civic action, and social justice with minoritized communities to collectively reimagine equitable futures.

She has been particularly invested in exploring design histories in North Africa. Among multiple essays she wrote, she is the author of Woven in Oral History: An Incomplete Taxonomy of Amazigh Symbols in the book Centered edited by Kaleena Sales, and A Biased Typographical Collection of Tangier in the book Our Morocco edited by Lucas Peters. She also practices engaged pedagogy in her graduate and undergraduate classrooms and is committed to illuminating the power in students to be transformative forces in society.

She is the founder and director of Hello Departures, an ever-evolving experimental program at the intersection of design pedagogy, strategy, and community that provokes uplifting transformative possibilities. She also serves as a Docent for the Letterform Archive, is on the Advising Council of the School of Architecture and Design at the Lebanese American University, contributes to the Advising Committee at the Medium, and volunteers as a Minister to officiate weddings for the LGBTQAI2S+/FLINTA community.

In addition, she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut and the director of the Department of Art & Art History’s Design Center (DC). She has 6 years of experience teaching in higher education and 8 years of industry experience in design, art direction, copywriting, and entrepreneurship in New York and Casablanca. Her work has been featured and shared in national and international exhibitions, conferences, and publications as well as awarded multiple times. She received a Bachelor's in Business Administration and a Master’s Degree in Marketing and Communications in addition to participating in the Exchange Program in Arts and Social Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She completed her MFA in Design & Visual Communications at the University of Florida where she additionally taught design as an Instructor of Record and was the 2020 recipient of the Calvin A. VanderWerf Award for Excellence in Teaching.

She is motivated to activate greatness in everyone she encounters. When she is not working, you can find her avoiding the laundry that her two kids pile up, snapping never-too-many photos of her pup, and reinventing family recipes with her best friend and husband, Kári.

Talks
Rutgers University, American University of Beirut, Kingston University, UK, CAA 2024 Chicago, Type Electives, SECAC 2023 Richmond, VA, ArtCenter College of Design, Design History + Theory at University of Applied Arts in Vienna, HASTAC 2023 Pratt Institute Brooklyn NY, BIPOC Design History, The Momentary Museum, SECAC 2022 Baltimore, NY Design Club, Design Research Society Bilbao 2022, Design History Society, UCDA 2022, A_Z Berlin, Letterform Archive, TypeWknd 2021, Köln School of Design, ATYPI Tech Talks 2021, CAA 2021, University of Central Oklahoma, Dubai’s Women in Literature Festival 2021, AIGA Design Conference 2020, ATYPI 2020, University of Houston, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.


Previous Partners
Grand Marnier, Absolut Vodka, Carrefour, National Women’s History Museum, the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection chaired by HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa, Wheels Up, Danone, Renault, Peugeot, Ford, INWI, Nestlé, Enti.ma, Saham Insurance, Banque Populaire, Société Générale, Bosch, University of Florida, University at Buffalo (SUNY), Fayetteville Public Library, the Medium

Exhibits
︎︎︎IF! Italians Festival, Milan;
︎︎︎Barreira Arte y Diseno, Valencia;
︎︎︎Museum of Yanaky Mansiev, Veliko Tarnovo;
︎︎︎Campus Condorcet, Paris;
︎︎︎Miami Art Basel, Miami, FL;
︎︎︎Contact Gallery, Brooklyn, NYC;
︎︎︎Type Directors’ Club, NYC,
︎︎︎The Adrienne Theater, Philadelphia;
︎︎︎KM8 gallery, Belgrade, Serbia;
︎︎︎National Biennal Exhibition of Graphic Design, High Point, NC;
︎︎︎Civic Media Center, Gainesville, FL;
︎︎︎4Most Gallery, Gainesville, FL;
︎︎︎Gary R. Libby Gallery, Gainesville, FL;
︎︎︎University Gallery, Gainesville, FL;
︎︎︎L’Uzine, Casablanca, Morocco.