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
Marc Fonteijn
First Insights from the 2025 Service Design Salary(+) Report
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Chris Hodowanec
Agile + User Experience: How to navigate the Agile landscape as an UX Practitioner
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Kevin Bethune
Gatekeepers and Servant Leadership
2020 • DesignOps Community
Angelos Arnis
Navigating the Rapid Shifts in Tech's Turbulent Terrain
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Michal Anne Rogondino
Saving Outer Space: The First UX Design System for Our Nation’s Satellites
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Elana Chapman
Getting started with accessibility research
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Zariah Cameron
ReDesigning Wellbeing for Equitable Care in the Workplace
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Robert Fabricant
Industry junctures: Paths forwards for UXR and the critical decisions that get us there [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Sam Proulx
Accessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Yunyan Li
UX Best Practices
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Benjamin Wiedmaier
Redefining Toolkits: Unbundling to Create a Perfect Match
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Ryan Matthew
Bridging Design and Code: AI-Powered Design System Integration
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Suzan Bednarz
AccessibilityOps for All
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Renee Reid
Becoming a ResearchH.E.R (Highly Enterprise Ready)
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Kevin Bethune
Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Yolanda Rankin
Black Feminist Epistemology as a Critical Framework for Equitable Design
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold

More Videos

Jim Kalbach

"What we do can potentially be bigger than optimizing conversion rates; it can help build a more peaceful world."

Jim Kalbach

Peace is waged with sticky notes: Mapping Real-World Experiences

June 14, 2018

Irina Tikhonova

"Big projects tend to get out of hand and scare stakeholders, so starting small is key to scaling impact."

Irina Tikhonova Kari Dietrich

Small Wins, Big Impact: Leveraging and Elevating User Engagement

December 9, 2021

Frances Yllana

"Keep trying and iterating your design ops initiatives even if stakeholders resist at first."

Frances Yllana

DesignOps–Leading the Path to Parity

April 27, 2023

Leisa Reichelt

"Empathy walls emerged at DTA because teams needed a visceral way to bring stories back from the field."

Leisa Reichelt

Opening Keynote: Operating in Context

November 7, 2018

"We built a linear aggression model showing direct correlation between design problems and business metrics like referral revenue."

Panel Discussion: Communicating the Value of DesignOps

November 7, 2018

Sarah Williams

"Our design group is positioned under marketing, which informs who champions and promotes design within the company."

Sarah Williams

A Framework for CX Transformation

June 11, 2021

Cennydd Bowles

"There is no value in outsourcing the thinking of philosophy to AI; doing the thinking yourself is the point."

Cennydd Bowles

Exit Interview #2: Rediscovering the ethical heart of design

November 6, 2025

Ovetta Sampson

"Breaking up a holistic vision into quarterly milestones and celebrating those wins keeps stakeholders engaged and preserves your sanity."

Ovetta Sampson

Turning UX Passion into Real Product Influence

June 7, 2023

Peter Van Dijck

"Context design and context engineering mean figuring out and building what needs to go into that text file sent to the model."

Peter Van Dijck

Building impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 3: Understand AI architectures: RAG, Agents, Oh My!

July 30, 2025