Dear Britta,
I hope everyone has noticed how these observations reflect upon Donald Norman's proposal for how to develop a new design curriculum (Design Education Issue of Shi Ji, 15 April 2020). He describes how "working committees" have already been formed from a "carefully selected group of designers from industry and academia from Europe, the United States, and Asia," meaning that the project has, in advance, already excluded anyone who has failed to thrive in those environments, which is to say women and visible minorities. For example, the web site of the Hong Kong Polytechnic appears to show that only 20% of its faculty are female. 
Note also the use of "COVID methodology" for recruitment. In this metaphor, Donald Norman is "patient zero" who has shoulder-tapped people he knows, who then tap their friends and so on. I'm sure everyone who is getting tapped is very successful, which is to say unaware of the dark underside of lack of privilege.
Since the meaning of design projects is established in the very first phases of problem definition, it is difficult to imagine that this project is going to yield anything other than cozy confirmation of Northern patriarchal capitalism.
Oh well,Heidi

    On Saturday, April 18, 2020, 06:44:50 a.m. EDT, Britta Boyer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:  
 
 Dear Sarah (and all),

Thank you for sharing the article. 

It should come as a stark warning to the design research community just when it "appears" there may be some hope on the horizon for more diversity and less emphasis on the cognitive empire of the North (Santos, 2018) which is already gender biased and ethnocentric. At least the article is generous and highlights the plight of her male (parent) friend, Paola, to create understanding that this new crises is not gender related but is one of care. 


REF: Santos, B. de S. (2018). The end of the cognitive empire : the coming of age of epistemologies of the South.



The sections that worry me most are the following:

"career advancement based on the number and quality of a scientific publication" 

And 

" I expect data on publication records over the next couple of years will show that parents in academia were disadvantaged relative to non-parents"

In my humble opinion, the above requires there to be more tolerance for creative ways to present new knowledge in light of the "time" issues which we face - design research and journal editors need to be open and fluid to different ways to bring forth research into the public sphere and perhaps get more creative on engaging with those of us that are time constrained. After all, those of us interested in Design for Change are calling for transformation through design, those at the helm hopefully will take notice and make sure that the path forward is an inclusive one. In fact, it is an opportunity and one that has already been highlighted by Dora:

https://sfdora.org/read/


It would be interesting to hear from those at the helm of journal publications on how we could collectively address this epistemological issue unfolding before us?

Warm regards,

Britta Boyer
 
PhD Doctoral Candidate
Institute of Design Innovation
Loughborough University, London
 
www.brittaboyer.com <http://www.brittaboyer.com>
 
 

On 18/04/2020, 10:46, "PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in on behalf of Sarah Teasley" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> wrote:

    Dear colleagues,
    
    Apologies for sending only a link, and no message. 
    
    The link is to a short comment in Nature about women academics and the Covid-19 lockdown measures, in the global North.
    
    I’d meant to write a response linking this piece to yesterday’s discussion about work, time, gender and class during the lockdown, but hit ’send’ instead of’ save draft’.
    
    But in effect I think this enacted the response I’d have written. Which is to say, hitting ’send’ by accident lets the cat out of the bag, that as a university lecturer whose workload increased substantially with Covid-19 and who is equally a parent, my days consist of a mad rush to do what I can in the hours available, which means mistakes are made and things left undone. It feels like trying to work while on maternity leave, all over again.)
    
    With best wishes,
    
    Sarah
    Dr Sarah Teasley
    Reader in Design History and Theory
    Head of Programme, History of Design
    Royal College of Art
    Kensington Gore
    London
    SW7 2EU
    E: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
    T: +44 (0)20 7590 4481
    www.rca.ac.uk <https://www.rca.ac.uk/>
    twitter.com/rca <https://twitter.com/rca>
    facebook.com/rca.london <https://facebook.com/rca.london>
    
    
    
    
    > On 18 Apr 2020, at 10:01, Sarah Teasley <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
    > 
    > 
    > https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01135-9
    > 
    > 
    > Sarah Teasley | [log in to unmask]
    
    
    
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
    Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
    Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    



-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------

  


-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------