Traganou’s work examines space and architecture in intersection with the field of design studies, and her current work is focusing on relations between design, dissent, migration and conditions of crisis, as well as on design’s role in the configuration of new national and postnational identities. She is the author of two books, Designing the Olympics: Representation, Participation, Contestation (Routledge 2016) and The Tôkaidô Road: Traveling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), and co-editor with Miodrag Mitrasinovic of Travel, Space, Architecture (Ashgate, 2009). Traganou has guest-edited two special issues: "Visual Communication Design in the Balkans" (The Design Journal, 18:4, 2015), together with Artemis Yagou, and "Design Histories of the Olympic Games," (Journal of Design History, 25:3, 2012), while a special issue on "Design and Society in Japan" that she edited with Sarah Teasley and Ignacio Adriasola is currently under production (Review of Japanese Culture and Society).
Traganou has chapters in
various books including Cartographic Japan (Chicago University Press, 2016), Design as Future-Making (Bloomsbury,
2014), Icons of Design (Bloomsbury,
2014), Remembering the Glory Days of the
Nation: Sport as lieu de mémoire in Japan (Routledge, 2012), Critical Cities Vol. 02 (Myrdle Court Press, 2010), Global Design History (Routledge,
2010), Suburbanizing the Masses: Public Transport and Urban Development
in Historical Perspective (Ashgate, 2003), and Japanese
Capitals in Historical Perspective: Place, Power and Memory in Kyoto, Edo and
Tokyo (RoutledgeCurzon, 2002). Her forthcoming publications
include chapters in the Encyclopedia of Asian Design (Bloomsbury) and Design Studies Companion (Routledge).
Traganou served as Book
Reviews editor for the Journal of Design
History from 2010 to 2015. She has published in numerous journals (Journal of Modern Greek
Studies, Design Issues, Journal of Design History, Design
and Culture, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, L’architecture
d’aujourd’hui, Journal for Architecture Building Science of the
Architectural Institute Japan, and Αρχιτεκτονικά Θέματα) and has lectured
and participated in conferences internationally.
Besides writing, Traganou
has produced the film Olympic Design: Mexico 1968: Visual Identity: Lance Wyman and co-curated, with Izumi Kuroishi, the exhibition Design and
Disaster: Kon Wajiro’s Modernologio (Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons, and Ponte 9 Gallery, Macau, 2014). She also produced two practice-based
collaborative research projects: Spatial Imaginary and Multiple Belonging: The
“Open House” Workshop, with Eleni Tzirtzilaki and Lydia Matthews (Byzantine
Museum Athens, 2008), and Migrant Tree, with Lydia Matthews,
Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, Natalia Roumelioti, Holly Wolf, and Eleni Tzirtzilaki
(El Jardin Del Paraiso community garden, Manhattan, 2010). In addition, she has
collaborated with schools in Austin, Texas; Brooklyn; and Manhattan in
introducing design thinking concepts to preschool and K–12 students.
Traganou has been a fellow of the Fulbright, Bard Graduate Center, The Japan Foundation, and Princeton Program in Hellenic Studies. Her research has been supported by the Design History Society, European Union S&T Post-Doc Fellowship Program in Japan, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Graham Foundation, Greek State Scholarship Foundation, and the Ministry of Education in Japan.
In this video, Traganou discusses the relationship between belonging and place and co-design as a method of bringing together people with disparate social identities. More information on Traganou's scholarship is available on her Academia profile.