Delving into communally imagining otherwise realities for the design school through workshops exploring decolonized, caring futures.
This lecture highlights the outcomes of a workshop series facilitated at Sheffield Hallam University in 2022 and 2023 that focused on imagining design schools otherwise. Through collectively exploring decolonized, caring futures, the workshops explored the past, present, and future of design education, holding these three states in paradox and—rather than viewing them as opposing realities—allowing them to connect and interplay with one another. These glimpses into decolonized futures and otherwise realities centered on commitment to care, acknowledgment, and community dreaming.
Layla Gharib (she/her) is a U.K.-based designer, thinker, researcher, writer, PhD(er), and educator of indigenous Turkoman and British heritage. Founded upon collective participatory approaches to imagining alternative realities and dreaming “otherwise,” her research and ongoing Ph.D. explore the decolonization of design education and the assemblage of caring futures.
This lecture is part of Design Educators* Unite!—a lecture series for design teachers, researchers, and students that shares feminist practices from within.
The lecture series is accessible through a sliding-scale price structure:
- Solidarity: CHF 280
- Standard: CHF 140
- Student: CHF 70
- BIPoC+Student: CHF 35
If you can afford it, please consider paying the solidarity price to support Futuress’ free learning and publishing program. For students with limited finances, particularly those self-identifying as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and majority world, we offer a BIPOC+ student price. We trust your honesty and do not require proof of self-identification for enrollment.
For institutions keen on facilitating their students’ and staff’s participation, we provide discounted passes. Should your institution express interest please contact admin@futuress.org. We are more than happy to tailor an offer to your specific needs.
By registering for this lecture series, you not only enter a transnational community centered around design politics, but you also support the work of commissioning, editing, and publishing original counter-narratives, and help to finance our free online learning program.
Feb 22 | 6 pm CET – special free event
Roundtable Discussion
Navigating the Past, Envisioning the Future: Unearthing Feminist and Decolonial Threads in Design Education
with Cherrypye (she/her) Creator, Educator & Researcher
Clara Meliande (she/her) Designer, Researcher & Educator
and Josefina Vidal (she/her) Designer & Researcher
Mar 21 | 6 pm CET
Lecture
Otherwise Realities: Communal Care, Decolonization, and The Design School
with Layla Gharib (she/her)
Designer, Researcher & Educator
Apr 11 | 6 pm CEST
Lecture
Queering Design: Moving Towards Emergent Practices
with Sloan Leo Cowan (they/he)
Community Designer, Facilitator & Educator
May 2 | 6 pm CEST
Lecture
Social Design Practices: From the Popular Neighborhoods to the Faculty of Design
with Giuliana Córdoba (she/none)
and Emilia Odriozola (she/her)
from the Student Movement Auge FADU
May 23 | 6 pm CEST
Lecture
Crip Spacetime and Utopias of Care
with Nina Mühlemann (they/none)
Artist & Disability Scholar
June 6 | 6 pm CEST
Lecture
Feminist Killjoy Design Pedagogy: On Emphasizing Joy
with Elizabeth Chin (she/her)
Anthropologist & Ethnographer
June 13 | 6 pm CEST
Lecture
Design and Other Ways of Knowing
Ramia Mazé (she/her)
Design Researcher
June 27 | 6 pm CEST
Lecture
Mocha Celis: We Dare to Build the World We Want to Live In
with Francisco Quiñones Cuartas (she/he)
and Virginia Silveira (she/her)
from Travesti-Trans Non-binary Popular High School Mocha Celis
