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
Nicole Aleong
Future Orientations to Everyday Life: Futures Anthropology as a Methodology
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Renee Bouwens
Landing Product Impact: Aligning Research as a Foundational Driver for Delivering the World’s Best Products
2023 • QuantQual Interest Group
Uday Gajendar
10 Years of Enterprise UX: Reflecting on the community and the practice
2025 • Enterprise Community
Louis Rosenfeld
GenAI for UXers: A Rosenbot Demo and Discussion
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Nancy Douyon
We'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Anna Avrekh
Diversity In and For Design: Building Conscious Diversity in Design and Research
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Peter Merholz
Customer-Centered Design Organizations
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Megan Blocker
Day 2 Theme Panel
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Monty Hammontree
The Future of UX Research
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Nathan Curtis
Design Systems for Us: How Many One-Source(s)-of-Truth Are Enough?
2019 • DesignOps Community
Briana Thomas
The Quiet Force: Uncovering Hidden Leadership in High-Impact Design Teams
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Dave Malouf
The Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 2)
2022 • DesignOps Community
Mike Oren
Why Pharmaceutical's Research Model Should Replace Design Thinking
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Taiye Akin-Akinyosoye
Amplifying voices and enhancing user research through group interviews
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Bringing together market and user research
2019 • Advancing Research Community
Sara Conklin
A UXer’s 12-Month Journey from Climate Concern to Climate Credibility
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group

More Videos

Gabriela Barneva

"Adding accessibility questions to intake forms kickstarts the process and makes it scalable."

Gabriela Barneva

Operationalizing Inclusive Design in Design Ops

September 11, 2025

Josh Clark

"Agents set goals, plan steps, execute them, and decide when they’re done, often without user attention."

Josh Clark Veronika Kindred

Sentient Design: New Postures for AI-Mediated Experiences (2nd of 3 seminars)

January 29, 2025

Shazia Ali

"People love when you end early — giving them back five minutes makes you the hero of the week."

Shazia Ali Bruce Gillespie Joyce Lee Andy Warr

Communication: Innovative techniques for making your voice heard [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

August 21, 2024

Rachel Posman

"My path into design Ops was winding—I started as a professional ballet dancer before falling in love with academia and design."

Rachel Posman John Calhoun

A Closer Look at Team Ops and Product Ops (Two Sides of the DesignOps Coin)

November 19, 2020

Louis Rosenfeld

"We have four themes over two days: systems thinking, information architecture and knowledge management, AI and machine learning, and designing the data."

Louis Rosenfeld

Welcome / Housekeeping

June 7, 2023

David Cronin

"We’ve put much more effort into workshop facilitation and teaching how to use the space effectively than on the design system itself."

David Cronin Uday Gajendar Peter Morville Kendra Shimmell

Discussion

May 13, 2015

Indi Young

"Cognitive empathy only forms with depth; you can’t build it at the surface level."

Indi Young

Paying Better Attention to the Problem with Indi Young

December 12, 2019

Josh Clark

"AI is not just a tool for productivity or efficiency; it's a design material with unusual strengths and weaknesses."

Josh Clark Veronika Kindred

Sentient Scenes and Radically Adaptive Experiences

June 11, 2025

JJ Kercher

"When I started, I was the first designer among engineers who already prized ease of use as a key advantage."

JJ Kercher

A Roadmap for Maturing Design in the Enterprise

June 15, 2018