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?"
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"AI tools generate convincing yet potentially misleading content at scale, eroding public trust."
Noah BondRedefining truth and inclusivity: Navigating data ownership and ethical research in the age of disinformation
March 11, 2025
"Empathy is really just the floor, not the ceiling; it cannot replace someone's actual lived experience."
Sahibzada MayedThe Politics of Radical Research: A Manifesto
March 27, 2023
"AI models hallucinate when they fail, they fail unpredictably."
Anupama DhareshwarFrom blueprint to bot: Designing resilient AI-powered services
November 19, 2025
"Giving senior leadership a shared language for design helped product teams better communicate what needed focus and why."
Chris MosesStretching the Definition of DesignOps with Product Development
November 7, 2018
"It’s not just the design work you see; it’s the unseen operations behind the scenes that determine quality."
Kristin SkinnerOpening Keynote: Org Design for Design Orgs
November 6, 2017
"You may need to operate the prototype on behalf of users whose assistive tech can’t click or interact with clickable prototypes."
Sam ProulxPrototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You
December 8, 2021
"Conflicts caused by layers moving at different speeds actually keep things balanced and resilient."
Brigette MetzlerScaling ResearchOps: Helping Researchers do Their Best Work
March 30, 2020
"My dad told me very early on in my career that I had to work two times harder than anyone else to get the same things."
Dantley DavisLeadership & Diversity—A Fireside Chat with Dantley Davis
September 17, 2020
"Humans experience life 30% rationally and 70% emotionally, which means emotions dominate how we engage at work."
Courtney Maya GeorgeScale Your Organization and Grow Your Designers
September 8, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How can jobs-to-be-done be applied to understand multiple roles within a complex B2B customer system?
How can performance metrics be adapted to reflect resilience rather than just efficiency in AI services?
What practical practices can make accessibility a sustainable part of daily design and development workflows?