Call for Proposals: Design Education Symposium at AIGA Conference, Pasadena, USA

For the Spring 2019 AIGA Conference in Pasadena, the Design Educators Community Steering Committee invites educators and industry professionals to submit proposals that address the topic of Perspectives on Design & Culture.

We are interested in cultivating a conversation around the intersection of design, culture, and education. How might we be reconsidering and discussing culture within design education and how might design and education become more respectful and inclusive of culture(s) and how might we empower students to become active participants in influencing cultural shifts?

Your proposal may take the form of a one-hour panel discussion or workshop, a Pechakucha, or a 20-minute presentation. Here are a few areas one might consider:

• How do we teach/guarantee/promote/leverage culturally respectful design practices?
• How do our ethical viewpoints help in constructing communications that benefit cultural entities?
• How do we reconcile different perspectives? (in the classroom, in our research).
• What is our role in communicating within a culture, but also for a culture?
• Current cultural issues in undergraduate and graduate design education.
• Teaching/re-teaching culture in design education.
• Multicultural design dynamics.
• Multilingualism and design.
• Design as a tool to promote cultural knowledge.
• How do we rationalize our bias/pre-conceived notions of culture when working with and for others?
• How do we define unbiased design? Is there such a thing?
• Colonialism and design education.
• Westernized and indigenous design practices.
• Indigeneity and the design canon.

We welcome designers and educators from all areas to address these questions. Keep in mind that the audience for the national Design conference is a mixture of educators, both full time and part time, and designers from the professional community. Presentations should be accessible, relevant and engaging for a broad audience.

Proposals are due November 1st, 2018. Please use this form to submit your proposal. A brief abstract (no more than 500 words) should be sufficient to communicate your topic. Questions may be sent to: info@designeducators.aiga.org