Spring ’23 DES.805 Graduate Seminar Guest Lecture Series 2: Decolonial Design (with Sarah Fathallah)

Screenshot from Fathallah’s lecture

For this Spring’s graduate class, DES.805 Seminar in Design Methodology, Prof. Fernando Carvalho has organized the course program around five areas of critical importance for contemporary research and practice: participatory design, design thinking, design for behavior change, decolonial design, and more-than-human design. Each of the areas is presented to the student via an introductory lecture; three of them delivered by specialized guest speakers, and two delivered by Prof Carvalho, as they relate to his own research expertise.

The introductory lectures serve to support the graduate students’ preparation and delivery of their own mini-lectures, expanding from the contents discussed and recommended readings, connecting the topics addressed with their MA Creative Work Projects, via in-class group discussions facilitated by the students.

On March 18^th, the class engaged with the second guest speaker of the series, Sarah Fathallah, who discussed theoretical underpinnings and practical applications of decolonial design. Fathallah emphasized issues around power and process within collaborative design projects, discussing the nature, the use, and the shifting of power dynamics between designers and stakeholders.

Sarah, a social designer living in the Bay Area but with extensive international experience, further provoked the students with prompts that aimed at questioning deep-seated assumptions about the structure and application of design processes involving non-designers.

The third and last guest speaker – a designer-artist investigating the application of living organisms in both contemplative and functional projects – will join us in April.

Sarah Fathallah

Sarah Fathallah (they/any) is a social designer, researcher, and educator. Throughout their career, Sarah has worked on design projects of all sizes in over 20 countries, on issues ranging from labor rights to reproductive health, and refugee displacement, with nonprofits, foundations, and social enterprises such as the International Domestic Workers Federation, the International Rescue Committee, and Open Society Foundations. Sarah serves as faculty at the California College of the Arts and UC Berkeley. They graduated from Sciences Po Paris, where they majored in International Business and Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Affairs, and studied Design Innovation at the Paris Est d.school. Sarah is currently studying and researching AI Ethics and Society at the University of Cambridge. Outside of their paid work, Sarah's engagement in community organizing, mutual aid, and political education continues to challenge and inform their work and praxis. Born and raised in Morocco, Sarah now resides in xučyun (also known as Oakland, CA).