In July 2023, I learned I would be teaching a special topics course in the spring at NCSU, meaning I could construct a class on whatever I wanted, as long as it related in some way to graphic and experience design. As a recent NCSU graduate student interested in social justice, I carried an urgency to conduct impactful design research, examining educator systemic bias and its impact on underrepresented students in design education. In academia, where curriculum tends to be censored by Board of Trustee ideology and anti-DEI legislation threatens classroom sovereignty, it is increasingly vital to provoke change and advocate for equity and social justice. (Note: As a non-tenure track faculty member, I did not feel pressure to please an institution through political neutrality that may stifle tenure-track faculty.) To me, this looked like building a special topics course around subjects aimed to radicalize students into free-thinkers who challenge the status quo: Design Ethics and Justice. Click here to view the course syllabus.
The course, which met weekly, began with a discussion on social identity and positionality. Students engaged in an activity where they mapped out their social identity positionalities on a wheel, and subsequently met up with Assistant Professor of Media Arts, Design, and Technology Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel’s Contemporary Issues in Art and Design class to discuss their positionalities and experiences with each other. After this, Dr. Noel and I led a debrief highlighting the gaps in representation within our classes and opened an insightful discussion about accessibility on NCSU’s campus.
In the following weeks, we discussed intersectionality, ethics in design, design justice, disability justice, accessible design, decolonizing design, indigenous design, BIPOC design, design in a capitalist society, poetic research, data ethics, ludditism, and queer design. Projects included the creation of a visualization of student values, a zine that captured a conversation between a student and a person engaged in design with a historically marginalized background, and finally, students designed educational activities about topics covered in class.
Throughout the course, we relied on Miro for collaboration, community-building, and class activities. As an ode to the collage-esque aesthetic of our course Miro board, this visual essay aims to mimic Miro’s visual output whilst capturing the breadth of content – lectures, activities, visiting speakers, workshops, student work, and student reflections – that emerged from Design Ethics and Justice. At first glance, the visualization is messy, scattered, and full of breadcrumbs – this is largely on purpose, representative of how I initially conceptualized the course. Upon further inspection, there is a structure within each section, labeled by topic and week, collaborators, and student projects. The flow of the course, though indicated by week number, does not necessarily need to be followed chronologically (but can be traced by a thick yellow line). Student-written reflections are sprinkled throughout, captured via sticky notes, and placed in proximity to what the student is reflecting on. Some sticky notes are paired with visual reflections.
I admit that the Design Ethics and Justice course was self-indulgent: In addition to considering the gaps in the current curriculum, I chose topics I was invested in. Understanding that I could not speak adequately on issues in which I don’t have experience, I invited guest speakers with lived experience in the topics we explored. Through these visits, my perspective expanded: I was once again a student, and though the lines felt a bit blurred from the beginning, I realized that rejecting the binary and restricting roles of student vs. educator enhanced receptivity and flow of knowledge.
Although I attempted to design this course from the perspective of a learner who craved these conversations as a student, I recognize that this course has tremendous room for improvement. If I were to facilitate this course in the future, I’d opt for students to have more autonomy in the way the course is structured, the topics we cover, and project scopes. Practicing pedagogical co-design would imply that students are co-creating the course, providing insight into their interests, and shaping their educational experience. In retrospect, the course should have provided more opportunities for conceptual contribution and not just feedback.
Overall, I enjoyed many aspects of my year as an Assistant Teaching Professor at NC State. I’m grateful for the opportunity to mentor students and expose them to ideas and philosophies they may not have encountered during their academic careers.
Thank you to all collaborators in this course: Lesley-Ann Noel, PhD; Lexi Namer, Alexandra Grossi, Sadie Red Wing, Ashley Anderson, Shadrick Addy (and Victoria Gerson for the introduction), Randa Hadi, and Jarrett Fuller.
Most of all, thank you to my students who approached this course with openness, patience, and willingness to thoughtfully engage.
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