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
Adam Thomas
Survival Metrics – Making Change in a Fast, Data-Informed, and Politically Safe Way
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Dagmara Kukawka
Tiny team, moonshot impact: Democratizing research across continents
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Conference
Kevin Bethune
Gatekeepers and Servant Leadership
2020 • DesignOps Community
Jennifer Strickland
Fireside Chat: How Design Addresses a World on Fire
2022 • Civic Design Community
Florence Okoye
AfroFuturism and UX Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Silke Bochat
5 Antifragile Strategies for a DesignOps 2.0
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Mike Brzozowski
UX in everyday products: Empowering climate conscious choices
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Dave Malouf
Panel: Design Systems and Documentation
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Anna Avrekh
Diversity In and For Design: Building Conscious Diversity in Design and Research
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Kate Towsey
ResearchOps AMA with Kate Towsey & Jake Burghardt
2025 • Advancing Research Community
Shipra Kayan
How we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Bria Alexander
State of DesignOps Panel
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 3: Introduction
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Rima Campbell
Increase Productivity and Drive Business Impact
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Giff Constable
Financial fluency for product leaders: AMA with Giff Constable
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Tony Turner
Capturing Deep Insights
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold

More Videos

Bria Alexander

"We still don’t know if head of design ops will evolve toward a COO role or some other senior position."

Bria Alexander Meredith Black Tim Gilligan

State of DesignOps Panel

October 1, 2021

Megan Campos

"The best we do should be open to improvement and evolution to better serve clients' target audiences."

Megan Campos

What Did I Miss? The Hidden Costs of Deprioritizing Diversity in User Research

March 12, 2021

Anne Mamaghani

"Getting to know what people care about in the organization helps tailor workshops to support those goals and gain buy-in."

Anne Mamaghani

How Your Organization's Generative Workshops Are Probably Going Wrong and How to Get Them Right

March 28, 2023

Stephen Pollard

"Can we just hang out, get on the tube, and hang out at Heathrow? He looked at me very strangely."

Stephen Pollard

Closing Keynote: Getting giants to dance - what can we learn from designing large and complex public infrastructure?

November 7, 2017

Mansi Gupta

"Women experience systemic inequality simply by navigating a world that isn’t designed for them."

Mansi Gupta

Women-Centric Research: What, Why, How

March 29, 2023

Carol Scott

"Trauma changes the brain—it rewires the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus forever."

Carol Scott Melissa Eggleston

Avoid Harming Your Team and Users: Promoting Care and Brand Reputation with Trauma-Informed UX Practices

February 5, 2025

Todd Healy

"Partner Onboarding Gold Standards act like a carrot-shaped stick tied to executive bonuses to push speed to revenue without sacrificing quality."

Todd Healy Jess Greco

Driving Change with CX Metrics

June 7, 2023

Erin Weigel

"Design is the rendering of intent — bringing ideas into form that solve the problem."

Erin Weigel

Get Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact

July 24, 2024

Chris Geison

"What am I personally doing to contribute to the dynamics that stand in the way of better futures?"

Chris Geison

Theme 1 Intro

March 9, 2022