Transitioning towards Sustainable Futures

School of Design Inaugural Learning & Teaching Symposium in cooperation with QUT Design Lab & More-than-Human Futures research group

held in conjunction with the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) conference 2021

Tuesday 2 November 2021, 9am – 5pm, E Block Level 5 Functions Space, QUT Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, Australia – and online via zoom

Design usually doesn't exist in isolation. It thrives on partnerships with other disciplines and domains, such as design & health, design & technology, and design & sustainability. It thus often fulfills more than just its usual roles of creativity and creation; it is design that provides the lateral thinking skills and polymath diplomacy that is the conceptual glue enabling better collaboration and bringing disparate cognitive areas together, such as STEM & HASS, digital & physical, academia & industry, built & natural environments.

We are facing uncertain times with multiple planetary crises unfolding at rapid pace. Not only does this call for new ideas and innovation, it requires systems thinking and transdisciplinary approaches. We can no longer break up and compartmentalise the urgent task of sustainability into quick technological fixes; bold and urgent reform-work is required that goes beyond science and engineering ingenuity.

This raises some challenging questions: How do we prepare the next generation of design graduates to tackle these wicked problems? And how do we inform teaching pedagogies and practices by research into post-anthropocentric and more-than-human futures?

We invite you to join members of the QUT School of Design's Sustainability Committee and the More-than-Human Futures research group for our inaugural learning & teaching symposium on the topic of transitioning towards sustainable futures.

The symposium is partly inspired by discussions as part of the Great Transition Initiative's online forum The Pedagogy of Transition: Educating for the Future We Want.

Draft Program (subject to change) >

ZOOM videoconference link >

Meeting ID: 847 1802 2012 – Password: 353814