Sarah Carter

Sarah Anne Carter, Executive Director of the Center for Design and Material Culture and Associate Professor in Design Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has transformed understanding of material culture and museum studies. After earning multiple degrees from Harvard University, including a Ph.D. in American Studies, and an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware, she has built an influential career spanning academia and museum curation. Her groundbreaking book "Object Lessons: How Nineteenth-Century Americans Learned to Make Sense of the Material World" (Oxford, 2018) revolutionized understanding of material culture education. As former Curator and Director of Research at the Chipstone Foundation, she pioneered innovative exhibition approaches and directed the Think Tank Program supporting progressive curatorial practices. Her interdisciplinary scholarship explores museums, childhood, domestic interiors, and American social life, while her current work includes developing "Museum Feelings," examining the emotional history of American museums. Through her leadership at the Center for Design and Material Culture, she continues to shape understanding of material culture while mentoring the next generation of scholars and curators.