Dear Gjoko,

Your background in this space is impressive. However, I was not challenging you on your background or your personal or professional commitment. Rather, I was trying to raise what I see as an important issue. By allowing the old normal – the amazing people who lead areas of design research, education, criticism and practice – to dominate, we risk being seduced into believing that the advances we make are enough. It is only by bringing new voices from the margins – no less amazing people from within other socio-cultural histories of design – that we can fruitfully disrupt our beliefs and practices. Not one:

> African American woman - a champion of introducing gender, diversity and equity initatives in a global organistaion such as the Design Management Institute - to be the opening speaker of this event and to start the series by sharing her expereince on this topic. 


but many, so that the balance of voices can begin to be restored within everything we do.

As experts, our strengths are also our weaknesses. It is critically important that we do everything possible to disrupt our expertise, so that the old normal of amazing, but narrow, voices do not continue to dominate.

To reiterate, this is not a challenge to your person. This is a challenge for the community to recognise what some of our tendencies are, no matter our histories, commitments or intentions. I believe these things benefit from being recognised, reflected upon and discussed. I very much appreciate you are leading this effort, and I do appreciate the nuance you aim to bring to the table with the follow-up sessions and your commitment to opening up the way you are thinking about it. However, I also believe the discussion around diversity at the forefront is important, and cannot be glossed over no matter how honourable or impactful one person or another’s intentions and actions over time may be. 

Perhaps some other voices can help expand the discussion? 

It would be great to see people respond to Gjoko’s request to the list to assist in opening up the voices he might choose from in putting together the future panels?

Much of my own reading these days is in STS, in addition to Design, and while passionately committed to opening space for other voices, I remain painfully aware of my limitations. I am a white Australian living in Denmark after formative years in New York, Tokyo, London and Paris. Aside from the obvious privilege of being white, my childhood was far from privileged and much of my adult-hood was lived in precarity. I came to higher education very late, and am now a tenured associate professor, firmly ensconced in the middle class, in a country that provides security for its academics, even in these unstable times. However much effort I make, I will always have so much to learn from others, more at the coalface than myself. 

In any case, to start the discussion, I humbly point to:

– Arturo Escobar. His book, Design for the Pluriverse, is, I believe, critically important. It has already been foregrounded on this list.
– Robin Walls’ wonderful 2013 book 'Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants' contains so much wisdom, critically important for Design. It would be great to see Robin Wall in forums on the new normal in Design
–  Celeste Martin, Dean of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, CA was a critically important voice in the recent She Ji conversation on ‘Design Education. Moving the conversation to the Schools.’ She is an absolute powerhouse whose voice should, I believe, be foregrounded more often.
– as is Dori Tunstall, Dean of the faculty of Design at OCAD

I’m sure others, from more diverse backgrounds than my own can bring powerful new voices to the table here. New to the dominating old normal at any rate. 

Warmly,
Danielle

Gjoko wrote:

— snip — 

> Hosting a speaker series is not really a measurement of my impact in terms of what I do in this domain. I have been leading equity, diversity and inclusion initatives long before they became a popular topic for many people.
> 
> I do, however, belive that I should not be shunning amazing people away just because they are white or are from the Global North. In fact, while I do work in the Global North, I do not identify myself as westerner - and anyone from Europe will know what I mean by that given that I was born and raised in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
> 
> The reason why I wanted to host a separete event with a different group of people is simply due to thematic reasons. Marginalisation has nothing to do with that. Otherwise, I would not had an African American woman - a champion of introducing gender, diversity and equity initatives in a global organistaion such as the Design Management Institute - to be the opening speaker of this event and to start the series by sharing her expereince on this topic. 
> In any case, this series is still work in progress and I am building it as we go. However, I do aknowledge that there is always an opportunity for everyone to do more. 
> 
> All the best,
> Gjoko



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