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?"

Ask the Rosenbot
Sheryl Cababa
Living in the Clouds: Adopting a Systems Thinking Mindset
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Anna Poznyakov
Get The Most Out Of Stakeholder Collaboration—and Maximize Your Research Impact
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Cornelius Rachieru
Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Roberta Dombrowski
Making Research a Team Sport
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Aaron Stienstra
Leveraging Civic Design to Advance Equity and Rebuild Trust in the US Federal Government
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Bryce Benton
[Demo] AI-powered UX enhancement: Aligning GitHub documentation with USWDS at Austin Public Library
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Redefining the research toolkit: Expanding methodologies for a changing world
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Sarah Fathallah
A Typology of Participation in Participatory Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Samuel Proulx
Designing for Disability, Innovating for Everyone
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Robin Beers
How to create actionable insight in the face of politics and silos [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Jemma Ahmed
Research at an inflection point: Adapting to a new era of collaboration, equity, and innovation
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Abby Covert
Stuck? Diagrams Help
2022 • DesignOps Community
Alfred Kahn
A Seat at the Table: Making Your Team a Strategic Partner
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Indi Young
Paying Better Attention to the Problem with Indi Young
2019 • Advancing Research Community
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Megan Campos
What Did I Miss? The Hidden Costs of Deprioritizing Diversity in User Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold

More Videos

Lada Gorlenko

"Simply asking stakeholders what success looks like for them in a project is a powerful way to start meaningful conversations."

Lada Gorlenko Sharbani Dhar Sébastien Malo Rob Mitzel Ivana Ng Michal Anne Rogondino

Theme 1: Discussion

January 8, 2024

Rebecca Gimenez

"If you ask our partners what we do, they might say I’m not totally sure, but I know that we need it."

Rebecca Gimenez

Work in Progress: Service Design at Airbnb

December 3, 2024

Chris Geison

"We're positioned at the nexus of insight and action."

Chris Geison

Theme Two Intro

March 28, 2023

Patrizia Bertini

"No VP or director has direct responsibility at board level. It’s the C-executives who ultimately decide."

Patrizia Bertini

The (r)evolution of designOps: It’s Time to Think (really) BIG

September 11, 2025

Christopher Noessel

"We risk deskilling users and overreliance, where people rubber stamp AI output without critical thought."

Christopher Noessel

AI of the now: Designing for Agents

July 31, 2024

Jemma Ahmed

"Insights are networked; they don’t exist independently beyond how they’re absorbed and acted on by others."

Jemma Ahmed Subhasree Chatterjee Robert Fabricant Alexandra Jayeun Lee Ben Robins

Collaboration: learning from other fields beyond our own [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

August 7, 2024

Sheryl Cababa

"Systems thinking is not just about complexity but grounded in ethics to help deliver a better future for humans and the planet."

Sheryl Cababa

Expanding your Design Lens with Systems Thinking

March 28, 2023

Peter Merholz

"Smaller design orgs rate high on some health indicators but often have no growth path; very large orgs get bogged down by bureaucracy."

Peter Merholz

The 2025 State of UX/Design Organizational Health

November 12, 2025

Jen Briselli

"We don’t stand back to reflect, but we can do that reflecting in the moment."

Jen Briselli

Learning Is The Engine: Designing & Adapting in a World We Can’t Predict

April 16, 2025