Do it.

As a female designer I have the strong personal need to participate in the actual feministic movement in a professional and reflected way. I am especially interested in the relation of feminism and design and, as a didactic designer, I am thinking about how to make this discourse accessible and beneficial to others.

 

What is RMWD?

I was given the opportunity to hold a lectureship at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences for one semester, during which I taught autonomously every week. Role models who design – Partizipation, Haltung, Selbstbild (Participation, Attitude, Self-image) consisted of eleven individually designed sessions, each dealing with different aspects of feminism, participation, and inequality in relation to the design industry. 30 interdisciplinary design students from bachelor and master programms participated in the bilingual course.

 

What is the idea behind RMWD?

Because feminism has become such a relevant – yet sensitive – topic it was  important for me to balance between a theoretical and a practical approach for my lecture – especially since the students had varying amounts of knowledge about and experience with feminism in design.

 

Therefore I decided not only provided them with historical, scientific and theoretical input to support reflected and fact based knowledge. I also emphasised individual empowerment and personal growth of the students by creating a save space for open discussions. This enabled them to exchange personal experiences and collaborate in a series of workshops. Furthermore I invited international external guests to join us in class.

 

Additionally, all students worked on individual design projects in which they could use their creative power to develop solutions for current feminist issues – thereby combining theoretical and practical knowledge in a reflected way.

 

Part of my preparation of each week’s session was extensive research in feminism, design, design thinking methods and workshop implementation. Furthermore I  interviewed Berlin-based designers from  a range of design  disciplines, visited feministic talks in different cities, and shared these experiences with the students.

 

Learning objectives of RMWD

- Developing a critical approach to the subject of feminism and/in design
- Overcoming prejudices and fear to discuss the subject

- Learning how to empower yourself and others

- Developing a strong feministic attitude and communicating it right

- Reflecting on and improving self-perception and confidence, with a specific focus on body language, voice and wording, by participating in open discussions, workshops  and frequent presentation tasks

- Finding a conscious way to use design to make a contribution in feminism

 

My role at RMWD

Besides preparing and leading the lectureship as a lecturer there was a range of other roles I aimed to fulfill: I  served as a mentor during the development of the students` design projects, as a course manager, a female designer, a role model and, of course, a patient listener to the student’s needs, problems and questions.