Decolonising Design History – Call for Papers

19 July 2019

Decolonising Design History – Call for Papers

Session Convenors: Katherine Moline (University of New South Wales), Kasia Jezowska (University of New South Wales), Livia Rezende (University of New South Wales)

Submit paper proposals to: k.moline@unsw.edu.au

This session invites papers that explore the imaginaries of the decolonisation of design history through case-studies, practitioner accounts, and emergent models that contextualise the agencies engaged in historicising design. Histories of design can frame design cultures and discourses as the product of advanced industrialised economies, capitalist modernity, star practitioners, company biographies, and present designers as the sole custodians of the design profession. This historiographical tendency equates design with the colonial endeavour and denies the co-existence of diverse approaches. Drawing from both art history and cultural studies, design history on the one hand reasserts disciplinary boundaries to define the specificities of the field and validate the profession – a defensive disciplinarity attitude that mirrors the current moment of hyper-nationalism. On the other hand, histories that open up the social and political imaginaries of design by offering alternatives to the status quo of the Eurocentric canon complicate such disciplinary boundaries. Possible topics include:

• Histories of design in the Postcolonial/Global South

• Decolonisation of curriculum, bibliographies, and teaching methods

• Dori Tunstall’s proposal for Respectful Design

• Case-studies of indigenous design and interpretive frameworks

• Accounts of the challenges of redressing injustice as defined by Tuck and Yang (2012) when decolonising design practices

• Emergent models that contextualise the agencies engaged in the production of alternative design histories.

Submission Guidelines:

• Speakers may present no more than TWO papers.

• A paper that has been published, or presented previously may not be delivered at the AAANZ Conference.

• Acceptance in a session implies a commitment to present a 20-minute paper at that session

in person and payment of the conference registration fee and AAANZ membership fee.

AAANZ Membership benefits and costs are detailed here: http://aaanz.info/membership

• Please note all speakers and convenors must be current AAANZ members at the time of

the conference to be included in the conference programme.

For more information: http://aaanz.info/aaanz-home/conferences/2019-conference/nga-tutaki-encounter-s-call-for-papers