In a special event co-sponsored by the UI Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and generously co-sponsored by the UI Office of the Vice President for Research, designer and educator Lesley-Ann Noel will talk about her new book, Design Social Change: Take Action, Work Toward Equity, and Challenge the Status Quo. Noel will engage in a discussion with Adele Vanarsdale, Director of Campus Project Planning, and take questions from the audience. In Design Social Change, Noel shares essential design strategies for making a lasting impact in the community.  “With our growing understanding of the role that art, design, and cultural strategy can play in buttressing base-building and community organizing, Design Social Change provides indispensable tools, tips, and resources for creating a more healthy, just, and sustainable world.” –Bryant Terry

Professor of Media Arts, Design and Technology at North Carolina State University, Noel practices design through emancipatory, critical, and anti-hegemonic lenses, focusing on equity, social justice, and the experiences of people who are often excluded from design research. Her research also highlights the work of designers outside of Europe and North America as an act of decolonizing design. She also attempts to promote greater critical awareness among designers and design students by introducing critical theory concepts and vocabulary into the design studio, e.g. through The Designer’s Critical Alphabet. Noel practices primarily in the areas of social innovation, education, and public health. She is co-chair of the Pluriversal Design Special Interest Group of the Design Research Society and is a co-editor of The Black Experience in Design.