Building Spaces for Design Justice: A Case Study on the Design Justice Pedagogy Summit

Abstract As we promote more engagement with equity, ethics, and justice in design spaces, we must support designers, researchers, and instructors in successfully embedding these considerations in design education. In August 2022, the Design Justice Pedagogy Summit provided a space for instructors to build community, reimagine their courses and/or activities, and envision the future of design education through design justice. This paper explores participants’ experience and the impact of the summit, directly around the summit and four months after the summit through surveys, interviews, and design artifacts. Impact stories told by participants about their experiences and methods to incorporate design justice into their work were also analyzed. Participants gained greater confidence in embedding design justice into their work and/or teaching over the course of the summit and planned to further engage with it. They also valued the community and collaborations that were built at the summit. Moving forward, participants planned to further strengthen their engagement with design justice, share knowledge and continue the conversation around design justice, and build community. We synthesize these learnings to outline two areas of support that the summit provided, including mechanisms for embedding design justice and guidelines for building community spaces for design justice.