Harvard’s inaugural Black in Design Conference, organized by the African American Student Union at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, seeks to simultaneously recognize the contributions of African Descendants to the design fields and to broaden our definition of what it means to be a designer.

The student group believes that initial steps towards addressing social injustice through design are to reclaim the histories of underrepresented groups in design pedagogy and to implicate designers as having a role in repairing our broken built environment.

Dedicated to the pursuit of just and equitable spaces across all scales, this conference will broach conversations in increasing orders of magnitude: the building, the neighborhood, the city, the region, and the globe. This conference aims to serve to ingrain compassion for human beings into the ethos of design more broadly, as well as to instill a sense of responsibility within those who pass through the doors of the GSD.

PROGRAMME:

FRIDAY

3 :00 – 6:00 pm Registration

4 :00 – 6:00 pm Design Pedagogy Panel // Practice Workshop
Amber Wiley, Sonja Dümpelmann, Toni Griffin and GSD Department Chairs
Moderated by Michael Hays.
Workshop featuring Phil Freelon, Women in Design and Working GSD

6:00 – 8:00 pm Reception AASU Beer & Dogs

SATURDAY

8:30 – 9:30 am Registration

9:15 – 9:30 am  Opening Remarks by C + C Short film addressing terminology

9:30 – 10:30 am Session 1 | Building
Camilo José Vergara, Deanna Van Buren,  Jeanine Hays & Bryan Mason, Mitch McEwen

11:00 am – 12:00 pm Session 2 | Neighborhood
Frank C. Lee, Kimberly Driggins, Maurice Cox, Seitu Jones

12:30 – 2:00 pm Lunch | Food Justice, Race & Design

Cassandria Campbell, Euneika Rogers-Sipp, Fred Opie, Seitu Jones
Meal curated by Bryant Terry & Didi Emmons
2:00 – 3:00 pm Session 3 | City

Justin Garrett Moore, Liz Ogbu, Sherri Franklin
3:30 – 4:30 pm Panel Discussion | Regional

Brent Leggs, Craig L. Wilkins, Euneika Rogers-Sipp,
5:00 – 6:00 pm Keynote | Global

For more information, visit our website or email blackindesign.gsd@gmail.com