

Decolonizing Design: Designing for Liberatory Joy
A deep and impactful presentation by Dr. Elizabeth “Dori” Tunstall who introduces two aspects of decolonizing design: Putting Indigenous First and Dismantling the Racist Bias in the European Modernist Project in Design. Dr. Tunstall provides a framework to understand one’s positionality vis-a-vis Indigenous sovereignty and how that sets conditions for design that provides liberatory joy to bodies and communities. By showing the racism inherent in the focus on modernist design as the standard, she demonstrates in both theory and practice how institutions and individuals can open space for decolonial and diverse perspectives on making.
Speaker: Dr. Elizabeth “Dori” Tunstall
With a global career encompassing an Associate Professor of Design Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Swinburne University in Australia, respectively, Dori made history as the first black and black female Dean of a Design Faculty anywhere at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada. Her accomplishments have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, notably the 2022 Sir Misha Black Award for Distinguished Service to Design Education, the inaugural BADG of Honour for Design Education from the Black Artists and Designers Guide, and the 2023 SEGD Excellence in Design Education Award. Dori’s profound commitment to making an expansive impact beyond academia has recently led her to establish Dori Tunstall, Inc., a firm dedicated to decolonizing and diversifying institutional processes for companies and organizations through corporate education, executive coaching, and strategic consulting.
Watch Now