Otherwise Realities: Communal Care, Decolonization, and The Design School

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.

The event was co-moderated with Abigail Schreider (she/her), a service designer bringing discussions around issues such as care, diversity, inclusion, and collectively organizing the workplace.

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 was part of Design Educators* Unite!a lecture series for design teachers, researchers, and students that shares feminist practices from within.



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

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 19 | 6 pm CEST
Lecture
Crip Spacetime and Utopias of Care
with Nina Mühlemann (they/none)
Artist & Disability Scholar

July 4 | 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