Ethical and Equitable Design Outcomes
Lisa Elzey Mercer, Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Design for Responsible Innovation in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Wednesday, April 3, 2024, 5:30 PM EST
via YouTube Live
Co-hosted by Associate Professor Clarissa Ceglio and Digital Media and Design Students Kennedy Evans, Haydn Kerr and Melina Sandel
The design research process has the potential to create positive social change when working collaboratively to solve complex social issues. However, the design research process does not, by default, ensure the development of ethical and equitable design outcomes that benefit the groups they were intended to benefit and often reinforce the status quo. Designers have the agency to dismantle biased and myopically informed approaches through a critical and rigorous examination of the socio-cultural, socio-political, and socio-economical informed assumptions and values that may guide the enactment of any given collaborative design process. As designers strive to collaborate, they must engage with various stakeholders to develop, recalibrate, and implement constructive ways to pause and constructively disrupt the design research process to develop ethical and equitable design outcomes.
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER: https://dmd.uconn.edu/major/diverse-perspectives/diverse-perspectives-lisa-mercer/
About the Speaker:
Lisa Elzey Mercer (she/her/hers) is a designer, educator, and researcher. Her interests are in developing and executing design interventions that fuel and sustain responsible design for social impact. The developed frameworks and tools are intended to create a space for conversation and knowledge exchange where participants can collaborate in creating new ideas and solutions. This type of methodology is evidenced in her current projects focused on the topics of human trafficking, incarceration, race, and racism. Elzey Mercer is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Design for Responsible Innovation in the School of Art and Design, College of Fine and Applied Arts (FAA), at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
About the Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design 2024 Speaker Series:
To paraphrase James Baldwin, nothing can be changed until it is faced. This is certainly true of the inequities that have historically shaped digital media content, fields, and careers. Join UConn’s Digital Media & Design department in welcoming industry professionals, artists, and media scholars from the film, design, cultural, game, and other sectors to discuss how issues of equity manifest in their work, creative processes, and professions, allowing us to reflect on how our own practice can support greater equity, diversity, and inclusion.
For more information, contact: meredith.friedman@uconn.edu/DMD at meredith.friedman@uconn.edu