Stephen Burks (born 1969) is an American designer and a professor of architecture at Columbia University.

[10] Burks started his own design business at 2007 after meeting with Willard Musarurwa; a street vendor making wire souvenirs for tourists.

[11] The exhibition included his work produced with artisans from countries such as South Africa, Senegal, and Peru.

[15][16][17][18][19] His work is the subject of a touring exhibition titled, "Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place" which debuted at the High Museum of Art in 2022.

[20][21] In 2023 an exhibition at the Milan design fair (in which Burks was not a participant) attracted criticism after Burks and Jenny Nguyen pointed out that the pieces displayed lacked curatorial explanation of historical context, and were overtly racist stereotypical portrayals of people of non-European descent, stating: "It's really a question of how homogenous cultures like Italy marginalize people of non-European descent.