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.

The Politics of Radical Research: A Manifesto

Gold
Monday, March 27, 2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Share the love for this talk
The Politics of Radical Research: A Manifesto
Speakers: Sahibzada Mayed
Link:

Summary

This session is intended to be messy and will leave you with more questions than you came in with. We shall start off by asking ourselves “what are you pretending not to know?” This question inspired by African-American scholar and activist Toni Cade Bambara will guide us into the conversation. How do we understand our role as researchers? In what ways are we complicit in reproducing structural inequities and systemic harm? This manifesto is centered around 3 “big” themes: At what and whose cost do we engage in research? What right do I have to engage in this research work? What if I refused to participate? This is an invitation to get intimate with ourselves and investigate the privilege(s) we hold as researchers and designers. Reflecting on the power imbalances that exist, how can we move toward a culturally thriving and sustainably empowering approach to emancipatory research that centers minoritized communities? Asking these questions and sitting with their complexities is urgent and necessary. Together, we strive for less extractive, decolonial, and anti-capitalist visions for research that are rooted in liberatory harm reduction, relationship building and community empowerment.

Key Insights

  • Researchers benefit from and simultaneously reproduce harmful systems, requiring deep self-awareness and accountability.

  • Empathy should be the baseline foundation of research, not the ultimate goal, because it cannot fully capture lived experience.

  • Centering marginalized people’s lived experiences must avoid appropriating or ‘stealing’ their stories.

  • Monetary compensation alone is insufficient; research should embody reciprocity, care, and generous ethical compensation.

  • Time is a weaponized, commodified social construct that contributes to extractive research practices for both researchers and participants.

  • Research is often treated like a mining operation, but humans must not be commodified as mining resources.

  • Researchers must differentiate between their right to engage versus feelings of entitlement and constantly reflect on access and privilege.

  • Trauma should not be treated as a prerequisite or ‘rite of passage’ for research participation, nor a justification for tokenism.

  • Researcher agency includes the power to choose to refuse participation or alter modes of engagement ethically.

  • Harm is inevitable in complex systems; acknowledging caused harm and repairing relationships is a critical ethical responsibility.

Notable Quotes

"The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situation but rather that piece of the oppressor that lives in all of us."

"Empathy is really just the floor, not the ceiling; it cannot replace someone's actual lived experience."

"If you walk in someone else’s shoes, then you’ve taken their shoes."

"Please do not engage in mining; research is not a mining operation."

"What role does time play as a form of currency in contributing to extractive methods of research?"

"We must distinguish between right and entitlement when engaging in research and acknowledge the responsibility that accompanies privilege."

"Does communal proximity guarantee the right to engage in research? This is a complicated question without easy answers."

"Trauma should not be reduced to a right of passage that justifies participation in research."

"Choosing to remain silent is still a choice; agency means owning how and if you participate."

"Are you able to say I caused harm, and can you repair the relationships and impacts your work has created?"

Ask the Rosenbot
Ashley Cortez
Shifting Toward Community-Led Innovation in Local Government
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Sarah Rink
Remote User Research: Dos and Don'ts from the Virtual Field
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Ted Neward
Theme 4: Enterprise Organizational Journey
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Joy KendiMwiti
Deciding when to automate: Integrating AI in high-stakes systems
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
David Cronin
The GE Design System and Thoughts about Craft at Scale
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Patrizia Bertini
The (r)evolution of designOps: It’s Time to Think (really) BIG
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Prabhas Pokharel
Order and Chaos: New Ways of Collaborating on Synthesis and Storytelling
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Josh Clark
Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Maria Skaaden
Continuous Design: One eye on the horizon and the other on the next wave
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Scher Foord
Turn the Ship Around: How to Apply Design Thinking Across Your Organization
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Kayla Farrell
What It's Like To Be a User Researcher at Compass
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Courtney Maya George
Scale Your Organization and Grow Your Designers
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Melinda Belcher
Insider preview of Enterprise Experience 2020
2020 • Enterprise Community
Ariel Kennan
Theme Two Intro
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Erika Flowers
Introduction to MURAL for UX
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold

More Videos

Feyikemi Akinwolemiwa

"The most expensive part of digital initiative is not delivery, it’s that messy middle—the space between insights and moving things forward."

Feyikemi Akinwolemiwa

Play to innovate: How curiosity and experimentation transform UX

March 11, 2026

Melissa Eggleston

"Delivery is trust—doing what you said, avoiding overpromising, and delivering quality."

Melissa Eggleston Maya Israni Florence Kasule Owen Seely Andrea Schneider

Practical People Skills for Building Trust on Teams and with Partners

December 9, 2021

Jane Reid

"It’s okay to be honest with participants that you’re not the right person to help them and to signpost support respectfully."

Jane Reid Janice Hannaway

Self-care in User Research

April 2, 2020

Brian T. O’Neill

"You need to prototype with real or believable data so the data doesn’t change the context of use."

Brian T. O’Neill Maria Cipollone Luis Colin Manuel Dahm Mike Oren

Does Designing and Researching Data Products Powered by ML/AI and Analytics Call for New UX Methods?

February 18, 2022

Yoel Sumitro

"We should open our profession to fresh graduates and those without traditional design research backgrounds."

Yoel Sumitro

Actions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers

March 9, 2022

Natalia Radywyl

"The system had catastrophically failed to live up to expert expectations and was underprepared for future challenges."

Natalia Radywyl

Co-Designing New Power in Australia's Public Sector

November 16, 2022

Kristin Wisnewski

"This circle represents the size of IBM, 385,000 IBMers. The CIO team is only 3% of that, and our design team is just 1% of the CIO."

Kristin Wisnewski

Measuring What Matters

October 23, 2019

Lija Hogan

"Future UX includes designing for user discovery in conversational and augmented interfaces, not just clicks."

Lija Hogan Milan Mijatovic Sam Proulx Louis Rosenfeld

Three Years Out: Perspectives on the Near-Term Future of User Research

March 15, 2024

Amahra Spence

"I often feel trapped inside someone else’s imagination and I must engage my own imagination to break free."

Amahra Spence

Designing for Liberation, Rehearsing Freedom

November 18, 2022