Design + Afrofuturism + Doomsday Optimism with Raja Schaar — DT101 E91

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Raja Schaar is an industrial designer after a futurist and doomsday optimist. She is the Director at Drexel University's product design program and co-chair of the Industrial Designers Society of America, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council.</span></p> <p><strong>Listen to learn about:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Raja’s career in design</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Climate change and design</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">How Raja uses science fiction and futurism in her teaching and work</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Black Girls STEAMing Through Dance</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Social Impact Design</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The power of design</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Media resources for designers wanting to explore future-thinking</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><strong>Our Guest</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Raja Schaar, IDSA (she/her) is Director and Associate Professor of the Product Design Program at Drexel University’s Westphal Collage of Media Arts and Design. She co-chairs IDSA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council is the past Education Director for the organization. Raja studies the ethical implications of design and technology through the lenses of speculative design and climate change. Her current projects address biases maternal health through wearable technology and participatory design; community-based co-design for engaging black girls and underrepresented minorities in STEM/STEAM; and generating frameworks and tools to embed Afrofuturism, biomimicry, sustainability, and climate justice into Design praxis. </