Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
Gold
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Share the love for this talk
Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
Speakers: Victor Udoewa
Link:

Summary

Most efforts at advancing research to be more inclusive focus on methods or methodologies or participation. Though helpful, those efforts have unfortunately not been sufficient for inclusion and we continue to be constrained by stronger forces which go to the root of what research means and the definition of inclusion. To be fully unconstrained and reach true inclusion we must learn to let go. Do we have the ability to do that? Let's talk about that. Join us for a half-hour of becoming undone, joyfully.

Key Insights

  • Diversity in research teams does not inherently guarantee inclusivity or counter systemic oppression.

  • Awareness of power and identity positionality often leads to feeling stuck without clear action steps.

  • Our ways of being deeply shape our epistemologies and methodologies in research.

  • Colonial Western ways of being emphasize objectification and individualism, limiting emancipatory knowledge production.

  • Indigenous knowledge systems, like those of the iBio people, view knowledge as relational and emergent from relationships.

  • Songs and oral traditions can serve as valid research methodologies tied to indigenous ways of knowing.

  • Systems of value influence which knowledge is considered legitimate or beneficial, often marginalizing community knowledge.

  • Immigrant communities bring preserved ways of being that produce measurable health and social benefits.

  • Positive deviance in communities reveals untapped local wisdom that can guide effective interventions.

  • Radical participatory research requires researchers to relinquish control and let communities define methods based on their own ways of being.

Notable Quotes

"If diversity alone made research inclusive, then police could never be anti-black because they include black officers."

"Whiteness isn’t about color; people of all colors can reinforce white supremacy."

"Awareness leads to feeling stuck because we don’t know what to do or don’t feel empowered to act."

"Our ways of being are roots that grow into ways of knowing, doing, and methods, all nourished by systems of value."

"In Western modernity, if something is not an object, it is not real research or real knowledge."

"For the iBio people, knowledge is relational, not objectified, emerging from relationships like songs."

"Songs become methodologies—the way you identify who is at the door is through the song they sing."

"Colonial ways of being, knowing, and valuing will never produce emancipatory methodologies."

"Community-rooted wisdom like the Mexican 'guana' practice reduces postpartum depression without traditional research."

"Will you learn to let go? Better yet, will you let go?"

Sam Proulx
Accessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Tutti Taygerly
Videconference: How to Work with Difficult People with Tutti Taygerly
2020 • Enterprise Community
Sean McKay
Coexisting with non-researchers: Practical strategies for a democratized research future
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Bryce Benton
[Demo] AI-powered UX enhancement: Aligning GitHub documentation with USWDS at Austin Public Library
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Alla Weinberg
How to Build and Scale Team Safety
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Alla Weinberg
Cross-Functional Relationship Design
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Melissa Eggleston
Practical People Skills for Building Trust on Teams and with Partners
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Katie Johnson
Disrupting generative AI products with just-in-time consumer insights
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
John Paul de Guzman
10k Screens Later: How We Became a Data-Driven Design Organization
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Jim Kalbach
Jazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Sarah Kinkade
Design Management Models in the Face of Transformation
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Bruce Gillespie
Learning from journalism: Balancing impactful communication with compassionate storytelling
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Miles Orkin
Creativity and Culture
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Mark Interrante
AI for Prioritization (3rd of 3 seminars)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Mike Oren
Why Pharmaceutical's Research Model Should Replace Design Thinking
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Iulia Cornigeanu
QuantQual Book Club: Small Data
2024 • QuantQual Interest Group

More Videos

Tracy McGoldrick

"Customers in the program become our greatest source of learning and help shape the future of our products."

Tracy McGoldrick

IBM User Experience Program—The What, Why and How

October 15, 2021

Mariah Hay

"Ethics are the discipline of dealing with what is good or bad with moral duty and obligation."

Mariah Hay

Ethics in Tech Education: Designing to Provide Opportunity for All

June 14, 2018

Max Gadney

"You can look at a company’s impact reports and funding sources to sniff out if something feels too good to be true."

Max Gadney Andrea Petrucci Joshua Stehr Hannah Wickes

Assessing UX jobs for impact in climate

August 14, 2024

Jane Davis

"The hardest part of any researcher's job is translating insights into action."

Jane Davis

Strategic Shifts and Innovations in User Research: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities

March 11, 2025

Jemma Ahmed

"We adapt, we innovate, or we no longer exist."

Jemma Ahmed

Research at an inflection point: Adapting to a new era of collaboration, equity, and innovation

March 11, 2025

Andrew Webster

"The CEO expects value in four months, but cultural transformation to show returns might take years — short-term wins matter."

Andrew Webster

Scaling Design Capability: How Involved Should You Be?

September 30, 2021

Erin Malone

"There’s still a need for human insight to understand behavior and apply meaningful design decisions."

Erin Malone

Understanding the past to prepare for the future

July 19, 2024

Tricia Wang

"Language matters — calling people 'users' reflects and reinforces the reality of reduced agency."

Tricia Wang

From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research

March 25, 2024

Deanna Zandt

"There’s no insignificant work in activism; all roles are critical."

Deanna Zandt

The Unspoken Complexity of “Self-Care” with Deanna Zandt

July 21, 2022