Call for papers: Indigenous design? New perspectives on decolonising design - DHS-sponsored panel at CAA 2024 (14-17 February 2024, Chicago)

Conference & Events

28 July 2023

Indigenous design? New perspectives on decolonising design

The Design History Society sponsored panel seeks in-person participants at the CAA’s 112th annual conference who can address the following topic:

Part of the decolonisation call in the history of design is the acknowledgement that cultures are an ever-changing, organic phenomenon, and that they evolve and constantly interact with each other. The ability to adapt and adopt has often been crucial to the survival of some cultures in the face of colonisation. Such recognition challenges the notions of the ‘traditional’ and ‘indigenous’ in design and invites a provocative question: to what extent are they still valid categories today?

While bearing in mind the terminological inaccuracy of the phrase ‘indigenous design,’ this panel invites papers that interrogate examples of what such design, considered from the global perspective. It particularly welcomes views offered from the point of local communities across the world and those that offer new methodological approaches. Examples can range from adoption of indigenous design in dominant cultures, adaptiveness of indigenous design to modernity, recent changes in institutional practices of display and collecting, or attempts at preservation of traditional customs.

Please submit your 250-word proposal via the CAA speaker’s corner website at https://caa.confex.com/caa/2024/webprogrampreliminary/meeting.html. The website provides detailed information on the submission process, but in short, click on the blue button under the title of the session ‘Indigenous Design?’ and follow the instructions.

Deadline for submission of paper proposals: 31 August 2023 (portal opens on 21 July).

Notifications of acceptance: by 18 September 2023.