The RGD invites design educators and researchers from across the country to apply to speak at our first Design Educators Conference to take place in Vancouver on June 2, at Emily Carr University.

The RGD invites design educators and researchers from across the country to apply to speak at our first Design Educators Conference to take place in Vancouver on June 2, at Emily Carr University.

Organized in collaboration with Emily Carr University of Art + Design, the 2022 conference theme is learning, re-learning, unlearning.

Speakers include:

Keynote: Terresa Moses, Creative Director at Blackbird Revolt

Talk: Centring Abolition in the Paradigm of Pedagogy

“The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy.” –Bell Hooks
Academic institutions should fundamentally support higher learning that will create positive shifts in our ways of thinking, doing and being in our communities. However, because of the influence of white supremacy and colonialism, individuals who are situated in the academic space may not have the ability or support to shift pedagogy and curriculum towards justice-centered outcomes. Like many systems of violence that systematically oppress historically underrepresented, underserved and underinvested communities, the system of education needs to be radically dismantled to make way for abolitionist futures that centre freedom and liberation. In Terresa’s keynote, she will explore the concepts of identity, power, privilege and culture to develop pedagogical experiences that move toward an anti-racist, social-justice centred and abolitionist paradigm of pedagogy.

Daniel McCafferty, Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba

Talk: Design Pipelines

Lisa Boulton, Research Associate at ECUAD + BCIT

Talk: Participatory Design

Cameron Neat, Associate Professor at Emily Carr University of Art + Design

Talk: Knitting Networks While Sitting in Place

Aidan Rowe, Associate Professor, Design Studies at the University of Alberta

Talk: Shifting Design Education: From Outputs to Outcomes

Evan Long, Professor at Centennial College

Talk: Game Theory

Eric Lee, Assistant Professor at University of the Fraser Valley

Talk: Canadian Bank Notes: Retelling the History of Canada

Hope Akello and Eugenia Bertulis, Emily Carr University of Art + Design

Talk: Strategies For Bringing Code Literacy to Design Studio Classrooms

The conference will address new innovations in teaching and research practices, reflect on and question what we know about our own limitations as educators and researchers and offer critique about what it means to rethink our discipline as we navigate uncharted and vulnerable spaces.