Lectures: Design=Feminism 2025 & 2026

This lecture series understands design as a cultural field of action that is strongly defined by established role expectations and gender attributions—both in terms of work processes (structures, hierarchies) and in regard to the outcomes (products, works, processes, etc.).

Conferences in general – and design conferences in particular – are usually dominated by men. DESIGN=FEMINISM has turned this upside down. This lecture series understands design practice as a female and/or feminist activity.

Why did RheinMain University of Applied Sciences decide to do this? The answer to this question raises yet another one: For what kind of world are we actually designing? Or even better: Which world are we shaping through design? In this, teachers and students follow Alison Place’s call that “designers should all be feminists”, because design also reinforces existing power structures and can reproduce inequality.

The world in which we engage in design work is shaped in many areas by:

• neoliberal principles
• patriarchal structures
• neocolonial conditions

Thus, design practice often contributes to stabilizing the forms of oppression that are based on – or result from – these conditions. In contrast, critical designers and theorists pursue various strategies and experiment with different approaches:

• creating visibility for women’s and queer perspectives & offering an alternative to a male-dominated design history and design theory
• highlighting female role models and expanding the discourse on female perspectives
• establishing design as an attitude
• implementing alternative design practices
• strengthening the networks of women designers, especially the potentials of collaboration