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
Dane DeSutter
Keeping the Body in Mind: What Gestures and Embodied Actions Tell You That Users May Not
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Leah Buley
Ask Me Anything with Leah Buley and Joe Natoli, co-authors of The User Experience Team of One (2nd edition)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Doug Powell
DesignOps and the Next Frontier: Leading Through Unpredictable Change
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Conference
Nathan Curtis
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Joseph Williams
Unlocking impact and influence through inclusive hiring in research
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Sandra Camacho
Creating More Bias-Proof Designs
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Kristin Skinner
Theme 1 Intro
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Phil Gilbert
A Consistent Culture of Design
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Ilana Lipsett
Anticipating Risk, Regulating Tech: A Playbook for Ethical Technology Governance
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Amy Marquez
INVEST: Discussion
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Kate Towsey
Shaping the future of research ops: Expanding roles and strategies for a more integrated research ecosystem
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Russ Unger
Onboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Chris Govias
Perspectives on Civic Design
2021 • Civic Design Community
Cassini Nazir
The Dangers of Empathy: Toward More Responsible Design Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Theme One Intro
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Asia Hoe
Partnering with Product: A Journey from Junior to Senior Design
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold

More Videos

Laura Gatewood

"The vast majority of what makes up meaningful human communication is harder for us to access screen to screen."

Laura Gatewood Laine Prokay

Beyond Buzzwords: Adding Heart to Effective Slack Communication

September 23, 2024

Jay Bustamante

"It is not our job to know all the answers, but to make sure the right questions are asked."

Jay Bustamante

Navigating the Ethical Frontier: DesignOps Strategies for Responsible AI Innovation

October 2, 2023

Sam Proulx

"My father made headlines as a blind man graduating with a computer science degree because it was considered unusual and abnormal."

Sam Proulx

To Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility

September 9, 2022

Marina Martin

"This new vets.gov site is extremely easy. I have not had this level of ease with a government website at all."

Marina Martin

Lives on the Line: The Stakes of UX at the Scale of Government

June 14, 2018

Nathan Curtis

"I don't want a component library for the account home. I want a system for all of that."

Nathan Curtis

Beyond the Toolkit: Spreading a System Across People & Products

June 9, 2016

Liza Pemstein

"Unmoderated research is exciting because it lets us gather insights while freeing people up to be in two places at once."

Liza Pemstein Jane Davis

Scaling Research Via an Ops First Model at Clever

March 27, 2023

Phil Hesketh

"Fix It Fridays are a dedicated time for the team to fix accessibility issues and make steady progress."

Phil Hesketh

Designing Accessible Research Workflows

September 29, 2021

Pippa Lomas

"It is everyone’s job to care about and contribute to making our workplaces an inclusive environment for all."

Pippa Lomas

Paving the Path for Neurodiversity in Design

October 4, 2023

PJ Buddhari

"Our team does not actually build the components consumed by product teams. Implementation teams report to their respective engineering and product orgs."

PJ Buddhari Nate Baldwin

Meet Spectrum, Adobe’s Design System

June 9, 2021