Diversifying Diversity: Addressing Marginalized Global Communities through Design
Affiliated Society or Committee Name: Design Studies ForumWhile design has often been understood by historians as capturing the aesthetic ethos of an era, it has played an even more compelling role shaping and defining ideologies and creating cultural shifts addressing the human condition. This humanitarian potential has shifted the historical, theoretical, and applied studies of design away from movements and styles to examining how design addresses deeper problems like inequity and marginalization. Yet, most design discourse is still focused on the western world. Design by and for marginalized communities in the global context falls to the periphery of mainstream design discourses from the late 20th century to present. How do we bring the seesaw of creative access back to its balanced state of inclusion and equity on a global scale? Focusing on humanitarian design echoes revolutionary movements including Arts and Crafts, Women’s Suffrage, 99 Occupy, and Black Lives Matter, each of which centered on issues of class, gender, and/or identity and concomitant disparities in political, economic, intellectual, and cultural resources. Addressing these challenges requires designers to traverse cultural boundaries delineated by disciplinary, ethnic/racial, geographic, generational, sexually-oriented, impaired, class- and gender-based differences among others. Amidst this complexity, designers must learn to cross global boundaries in order to create sustainable and humane solutions to contemporary problems, not only locally but worldwide. We invite proposals that extend the conversation about diversifying design to include global perspectives. The panel will comprise live and virtual presentations and culminate in a compendium disseminated via the CAA website along with publication in a journal.
Field of Study:
Modern (1800-present)
Twentieth Century
Twenty-First Century
Decorative Arts
Furniture
Chairs:
Yelena McLane,Florida State University - ymclane@fsu.edu
,
Neeta Verma,University of Notre Dame - nverma@nd.edu
and
Audrey G Bennett,University of Michigan - audreygbennett@gmail.com
Discussant:
Jill Pable,Florida State University - jpable@fsu.edu
