Rosenverse
Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion

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
Katie Hansen
Experimental research: techniques for deep, psychology-driven insights
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Brendan Jarvis
Framing Tomorrow by Questioning Today
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Anna Nguyen
Why Our Voice of the Customer is Better Than Yours
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Hugh Dubberly
Problems with Problems: Reconsidering the Frame of Designing as Problem-Solving
2019 • Enterprise Community
Samuel Proulx
Inclusive Research: Debunking Myths and Getting Started
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Neil Barrie
Widening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Paula Bach
Improving Legacy Software: How Much Better Does it Have to Be?
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Ana Maria Montero Barrantes
The Authentic UX Talent Show
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Everything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations
2022 • Civic Design Community
Charlotte Vorbeck
Pipeline to Civic Design
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Florence Okoye
AfroFuturism and UX Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Dave Hoffer
UX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Louis Rosenfeld
Welcome / Housekeeping
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Stephen Pollard
Closing Keynote: Getting giants to dance - what can we learn from designing large and complex public infrastructure?
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Eduardo Ortiz
Day 3 Theme Panel
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Trisha Causley
[Demo] Complexity in disguise: Crafting experiences for generative AI features
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold

More Videos

Alla Weinberg

"You cannot have trust if you don’t have safety first."

Alla Weinberg

Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

September 8, 2022

Bria Alexander

"All speakers will be present in the #ARgeneral Slack channel to answer your questions."

Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

January 8, 2024

Karen Pascoe

"Performance management is really about the employee experience; avoid surprises by coaching continuously on both what and how folks are doing."

Karen Pascoe

Developing Experience Teams and Talent in the Enterprise

June 8, 2016

Yolanda Rankin

"Games may seem like recreation, but they also serve as alternative pedagogical tools and cultural spaces."

Yolanda Rankin

Black Feminist Epistemology as a Critical Framework for Equitable Design

March 11, 2021

Matt Duignan

"We treat foundational and tactical research differently, using more flexible structures where rigid reports don’t fit."

Matt Duignan

HITS, Microsoft's internal human insight system: From research library to living body of knowledge

July 16, 2019

Elana Chapman

"You don’t need to be an expert in accessibility before doing user research with people with disabilities."

Elana Chapman Li Wen Huang Divyen Sanganee Annabel Weiner

Getting started with accessibility research

February 20, 2025

Niko Laitinen

"Low-threshold peer designing exponentially develops confidence very quickly."

Niko Laitinen

Adaptable Org Design for Resilient Times

June 10, 2021

Yulya Besplemennova

"Visuals from DALL·E didn’t work well; I asked multiple times to remove cables but they still appeared."

Yulya Besplemennova

[Demo] Stress-testing GenAI in user research synthesis

June 4, 2024

Brenna Fallon

"Growth and learning is your long term change management plan—does it take letting go of a clear outcome? Yes, but it’s worth the leap."

Brenna Fallon

Learning Over Outcomes

October 24, 2019