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From A-to-Z: Lesley-Ann Noel and Decolonizing Design By Max Cohen
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hroughout her career teaching design at home and abroad, there was one thing that stuck out to Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel – most of the concepts taught in classrooms across the world stemmed from a European perspective.
To say that Noel’s experience in design has taken her places would be an understatement. In 2018, she earned her Ph.D. in Design from the NC State College of Design and is now an assistant professor of Art + Design.
inclusive community-led research and public health solutions. By creating tools such as the Designer’s Critical Alphabet and the “Who Am I” Positionality Wheel, she is making conversations around race and bias more common in classrooms and workplaces. C ar d s B o r n o u t o f A n g e r
Her journey began at the Universidade Federal do Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil, where she earned her BA in industrial design. Then, she received her MBA from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. Afterward, she worked as the associate director of design thinking for social impact at Tulane University and lectured at Stanford University and the University of the West Indies.
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| N C State Universit y College of Design
“When we think about design, maybe we think about Bauhaus. Maybe we think about people from California. Maybe we think about New York,” says Noel. “I want to make sure that students understand that design is practiced in a lot of places, and design can be done in a lot of different ways.” Now, Noel aims to bring underrepresented voices into everyday design education through social innovation,
| design.ncsu.edu
“It is Memorial Day, 2020. I am in California, barbecuing on the tiny patio of the apartment where I am staying to ‘hide’ from COVID-19,” wrote Noel in an October 2020 article published in Design Observer. “New Orleans, where I am based, has turned into a COVID hotspot, and my son and I have left the city for a bit to take refuge elsewhere. Later that same day, George Floyd is murdered.”
