Intersectional design histories for pluriversal futures

This article was originally published by Advance HE as part of their Global Impact Grants 2022/23 publication.

A lecturer in Communication Design at RMIT developed a framework of inclusion and belonging to connect students with their intersectional identities and foster self-reflection and equitable design.

Design education in Australia is still largely dominated by Westphalian perspectives, values, histories and ways of learning, which in turn marginalises other identities, cultures and places. Responding to this legacy, this project details the development of an intersectional framework to build inclusion and belonging within design education. This project focuses on reimagining a first-year design history course across 2022 and 2023 that responds to inherent gender, racial and cultural biases within dominant design discourses.

Drawing from intersectional, student-centred and transformative learning theories, our initiative shows how students can develop self-awareness and critical evaluation skills through understanding and designing within their own histories and cultures. Experience demonstrates that, by offering spaces for students to connect design history to their own intersectional identities, they can contribute new knowledges and perspectives while contributing to a future with more equitable narratives of design history than we’ve had in the past. The impact of this project has resulted in increases in student self-reflection and belonging, as demonstrated in qualitative data through student reflections and course evaluations.

Reimagining communication design history

The course Communication Design Studies is a first-year core course within the RMIT University Bachelor of Communication Design programme. Traditionally, it has focused on a chronological historical narrative, largely following movements and technologies as reflected in core Western texts. While non-European design examples were included, such as hieroglyphics and Chinese scripts, they have largely been positioned as ‘othered’ or ‘bolted on’ content to ‘core’ Western histories, European designers and design exemplars. We are mindful that while previous staff were motivated to include more diverse histories, there remained a structural Euro-centric focus.

In restructuring this course for delivery in 2022, the lack of diversity in communication design history was addressed. The aspiration was to foster students’ identity development, agency and belonging, and encourage students to tell their own stories, explore their own histories, and to connect this with their emerging design practices. Ultimately, for students to design from within their own cultures rather than isolated from them (Giraldo and Childers, 2020). With a diverse student cohort, I felt this approach could be particularly powerful for students who may be joining the programme and see themselves as underrepresented or marginalised within dominant design discourses, or largely ignored within core Euro-centred reference texts.

Motivations

I, Nicola, am a colonial settler to Australia with English/Irish heritage and I am an ongoing design lecturer at RMIT University. My own design education was embedded in Euro-centric principles, mirrored across my professional practice experience. Becoming aware of the lack of diverse voices within design and recognising my own place within design’s colonial legacies required a reflexive research engagement and acknowledging my privileged positionality (St John and Akama, 2022). My motivations for seeking to change the communication design history curriculum stemmed from my experiences of teaching on the unit in 2021. I wanted to diversify the curriculum not just in terms of content, but to bridge the gap between design practice, culture and context, so students can develop critical awareness, nuanced understandings of pluriversal designs histories, acknowledge place and Indigenous sovereignty, and learn to make more informed design decisions.

Figure 1. Design and Intersectionality (inspired by Canli, Ece and Luiza Prado de O Martins, 2016)

The term ‘intersectionality’ was coined by black feminist and critical race scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw to explain how facets of oppression (from gender, race, class, sexuality, skin colour, ethnicity, wealth, religion etc) intersect and interact to define one’s social position (Crenshaw, 1989). Bringing this framework to communication design history enables an acknowledgement of the complexity of power and oppression and how this relates to the reproduction of dominant Westphalian design practices and histories. It is also a useful theory to understand how we can begin to undercover more diverse histories by looking at what voices and identities have been marginalised and excluded (see Figure 1). This framing enables students to critically examine dominant histories, voices and worldviews, to understand how history often favours those with power, while moving beyond the ‘othering’ of nonwestern based knowledge and ideas, or the inclusion of diverse voices as an ‘addition’ or ‘added on content’ to mainstream history and design discourse.

The intersectionality framework also enables students to see how their own identities can inform their design practices, and encourages them to design ‘within them’. A student-led pedagogical approach complements the framework by exploring and investigating concepts of personal, social and intersectional identities and how these connect with design histories and theories. The unit thus aims to offer students an experience that is informed by contemporary design theories while resonating and reflecting their lived experiences, cultures and histories.

Impact

Enabling students to tackle design history from an intersectional framing was beneficial for students’ sense of belonging. One student commented:

“I couldn’t believe I was being ENCOURAGED to research queer design. In high school I would always find a way to sneak in queer themes into my essays. So having my course work being centred around LGBTQI+ history, design and people was so exciting”. (Student 1)

Other students commented how learning about designers from their own cultural heritage helped them understand more about their own identities and design practices, while being a strong incentive to be active and engage with the course content. One student commented:

“I feel that this week’s lecture really highlighted for me how a synthesis of culture can be possible. Looking at how Shanghai’s Art Deco maintained the sleek, geometric style while also bringing in traditional Chinese motifs and materials, resulting in an engaging, cosmopolitan marriage of Eastern and Western stylisation. Where I may have initially leaned towards using two distinct styles to represent my background of Australia and Hong Kong, I now hope to find something in common between the two. I often feel caught between my two backgrounds, and, while they are two parts of me, they come together as one to represent my background. Both exist at the same time, together. These two distinct parts make up a whole”. (Student 2)

Transformations also emerge from student-centred and self-reflective design activities and assignments (see for example Figure 2). One student (Student 2) described how seeing a culturally interconnected design history helped her navigate between her own multiculturality – reflected in her Positionality Portrait assignment (see Figure 3).

Figure 2. A student’s Positionality Portrait. They describe: being multiracial, I’ve found it difficult to pinpoint what I ‘am’. My surname means diamond and my middle name means gold. Thus, I am wearing a diamond earring with a gold clasp. It’s attached to me, but sometimes I feel like it’s not a part of me. I am also not typically feminine, so donning earrings and jewellery are my go-to way of showcasing my femininity

Figure 3. Student 2’s Positionality Portrait. They describe: my portrait depicts myself caught between two cultural backgrounds, being an Australian that lived in Hong Kong for 12 years. My expression is one of confusion and overwhelm. I feel quite lost and hoped to capture that here. I’m finding my place in Australia, though my heart is still with my family in HK. Among the traditional mahjong tiles are other symbols, depicting the HK flag, my name stamped in Mandarin, western cards, a map of Australia, wattle and a kookaburra. Where there are the traditional eastern tiles, I have added some of their western counterparts. These tiles make up who I am, where I’ve been, how I got here.

I hope intersectional frameworks can be taken up by other design educators to help encourage students to explore points of connection and disconnection between different cultures and histories, and how local and global cultures might be more “creatively interwoven to create a design process that resists stereotyping, appropriation, and racist forms of representation, and …challenge racial inequalities” (Abdulla et al, 2019). This pedagogical approach seeks to create links for students to actively contribute their own knowledges and research to the course, to encourage a more relational approach and intersectional understanding of design history, while working to subvert and resist the dominant Euro-centric histories and ways of designing.

References

Abdulla, D, Ansari, A, Canli, E, Keshavarz, M, Kiem, M, Oliveira, P, Prado, L and Schultz, T (2019) ‘A manifesto for decolonising design’, Journal of Futures Studies, 23 (3): 129-132.

Crenshaw, K (1989) ‘Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics’, University of Chicago Legal Forum, 139.

Giraldo, A and Childers, P (2020) ‘Graphic design principles: a history- and context-based first-year design textbook’, in Oakland University, Proceedings of Design Incubation Colloquium 7.1. Oakland University, MI, 17 October.

St John, N and Akama, Y (2022) ‘Re-imagining co-design on country as a relational and transformational practice’, CoDesign, 18 (1): 16-31. Available at: doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2021.2001536

About the author

Dr Nicola St John is a design researcher from RMIT University, Australia. Her research is largely collaborative and community based; partnering with First Nations creatives, community schools, and design organisations in participatory research projects to foster social wellbeing, knowledge transfer, and design entrepreneurship. She is the co-founder of Solid Lines, Australia's first First Nations led illustration agency. Nicola has received accolades from the Good Design Awards as well as the prestigious RMIT Vice Chancellor’s award for research impact. Her teaching practice encourages the incorporation of intersectional, pluriversal, and co-design methodologies within communication design practice and her contributions to student learning have been awarded through national and international teaching awards.

Connect with Nicola on LinkedIn

02 November 2023

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Intersectional design histories for pluriversal futures