Gesche Joost

Gesche Joost (born 1974 in Kiel, Germany) is a German design researcher.

Gesche Joost studied design at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences and completed her Ph.D. in Rhetoric at the University of Tübingen.

Since 2011, Joost has been a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts specializing in design research, and since 2005, she has been the head of the Design Research Lab at Telekom Innovation Laboratories (also known as T-Labs). Joost focuses her research on human-computer interaction, aspects of gender and diversity in communications technology, social sustainability in design, as well as design theory and research.

In 2002, Joost was a founding board member of DGTF (the German Society for Design Theory and Research), which she has also chaired since 2008.

During the winter semester 2007/2008 Joost was a visiting professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Hildesheim (HAWK) for Gender & Design. From 2008 to 2010, she held an assistant professorship at TU Berlin for Interaction Design & Media. She directs several research projects at T-Labs, for example on tactile human-computer interaction. Within the scope of the Generation 50+ project, she participated in the development of the DECT telephone Sinus A 201 (funded by Deutsche Telekom) and received the iF product design award in 2010.

From 2006, Joost served as personal adviser to Germany's former finance minister Peer Steinbrück. In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 German elections, she was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on digital policy, led by Dorothee Bär and Brigitte Zypries.

In 2015, Joost was appointed to the Supervisory Board of SAP SE.

• German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF), Chairwoman
• Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Member of the Synod
• Goethe-Institut, Member of the General Meeting
• German National Academic Foundation, Member of the Executive Board
• Technologiestiftung Berlin, Member of the Board
• Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM), Member of the Board of Trustees
• Volkswagen, Member of the Sustainability Council (since 2016)
• Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV), Member of the Expert Advisory Board on Consumer Protection Issues (since 2014)
• CeBIT Innovation Award, Member of the Jury
• D64, Member of the Advisory Board

• Volkswagen Group appoints international Sustainability Council Archived 2 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Volkswagen, press release of September 28, 2016.

• 2006: 100 masterminds of tomorrow
• 2006: The 100 most important young Germans
• 2008: Science Award of the Governing Mayor of Berlin for Young Researchers

• 100 für Deutschland. In: Neon. 16 November 2006.
• Ehrung für gemischtes Doppel. In: TUB-newsportal. 15 December 2008.

Joost's many publications include Bild-Sprache. Die audio-visuelle Rhetorik des Films (2008, ISBN 978-3-89942-923-7) as well as Design als Rhetorik (2008, ISBN 978-3-7643-8345-9).