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Design@Large

Four speakers at design at large

The Design@Large speaker series highlights a different central theme within design during each fall, winter, and spring quarter to inspire attendees and showcase the brightest minds tackling issues impacting humanity. Design@Large is a course at UC San Diego and is also open to the public as a way of sharing cutting-edge research and innovative insights with a wider audience. Undergraduate students can sign up for DSGN 119 and graduate students can enroll in DSGN 219 (cross-listed with COGS 229 and CSE 219).

Design@Large was pioneered as a collaborative effort with UC San Diego faculty who shared the collective vision of drawing together a community of individuals from various design disciplines. A new wave of societal challenges, cultural values, and technological advancements is creating exciting opportunities for designers everywhere to make a global impact, and Design@Large provides the chance to learn about these opportunities as they emerge.

 

Spring 2025: Design and Politics in Transition

Faculty hosts: Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió and Lilly Irani

Who should design serve? How does design work in a crisis, and also recognizing that some people have been living in crisis for hundreds of years? And how might we reimagine design as a radical discipline for dialogue and action? From reinterpreting legal histories and theories that enable the design of place, to redesigning food distribution systems around food and land justice, to transforming what it means to be family, design offers many ways to transform our relationships with ourselves, each other and our environment. Design and Politics in Transition offers inspiration, theory, and guidance on a variety of design practices and epistemologies that together help us transition toward different, more equitable worlds where all can thrive–even during historical moments of political and social strife.

 

As always, Design@Large is open to the public. Register via our Eventbrite page. 

Promotional graphic for the Spring 2025 Design@Large series titled “Design and Politics in Transition.” The featured speaker is Danielle Dean. Her portrait is shown in a circular frame on the left, with abstract geometric shapes and digital textures on the right.

Danielle Dean

04/09/25

"A Conversation with Danielle Dean"

Promotional graphic for the Spring 2025 Design@Large series titled “Design and Politics in Transition.” The featured speaker is Meryem Kamil. Her portrait is shown in a circular frame on the left, with abstract geometric shapes and digital textures on the right.

Meryem Kamil

04/16/25

"Subverting Digital Colonialism: Palestinian Internet Cultures and Practices pre- and post-Oct. 7"

Promotional graphic for the Spring 2025 Design@Large series titled “Design and Politics in Transition.” The featured speaker is Terria Smith. Her portrait is shown in a circular frame on the left, with abstract geometric shapes and digital textures on the right.

Terria Smith

04/23/25

"The Heyday Berkeley Roundhouse: Amplifying Indigenous California"

Promotional graphic for the Spring 2025 Design@Large series titled “Design and Politics in Transition.” The featured speaker is Anita Chan. Her portrait is shown in a circular frame on the left, with abstract geometric shapes and digital textures on the right.

Anita Chan

05/14/25

"Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future"

Promotional graphic for the Spring 2025 Design@Large series titled “Design and Politics in Transition.” The featured speaker is Elisa Iturbe. Her portrait is shown in a circular frame on the left, with abstract geometric shapes and digital textures on the right.

Elisa Iturbe

05/21/25

"Confronting Carbon Form"

Promotional graphic for the Spring 2025 Design@Large series titled “Design and Politics in Transition.” The featured speaker is Ellee Igoe. Her portrait is shown in a circular frame on the left, with abstract geometric shapes and digital textures on the right.

Ellee Igoe

05/28/25

"A Foodscape for Equity, Ecology, and Circular Economy"

Design@Large

A lecture series, an open community event, and a video series viewable on YouTube.

Past D@L

Watch all recorded D@L series here:

Winter 2025: Antisocial Media

Spring 2024: AI and the New Information Age

Design@Large Retrospective

Full Design@Large Video Archive