See poster below for International Womxn’s Week 2021 programming. All activities were virtual and many were open to the public.

Program

Workshop with the Design as Protest Collective
Monday, March 8, 8-10PM EST

Members of the Design As Protest (DAP) Collective will explore the intersectional roots of International Womxn’s Day, draw links to ongoing activism, and facilitate a workshop on the Anti-Racist Design Justice Index (ARDJI). The ARDJI is a transformative framework

to seed change in design. We’ll explore the power dynamics of design & positionality; co-create solutions for anti-racist design practices. Participants will leave with actionable strategies to employ within workplaces, organizations, institutions, and communities, and forge stronger connections to others practicing anti-racism & design justice. The workshop will take place through Zoom and Miro, and is open to both students and faculty. Faculty will join a separate breakout room -- allowing for targeted discussion.

@designasprotest www.dapcollective.com 

International Womxn’s Week Keynote Address: Ananya Roy, “Undoing Property: Feminist Struggle in the Time of Abolition”
Tuesday, March 9, 7:30-9PM

Register here: https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/international-womxns-week-keynote-address/

Renewed uprising against the death-making apparatus of police and prison demands that we attend to the relationship between property and personhood, specifically to how the theft of land is facilitated by the theft of life. This talk, given on the occasion of International Womxn’s Day and during the week that marks the first anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s killing, focuses on the propertization of the gendered subject in the making of whiteness. The time of abolition, Roy argues, requires the undoing of gender-property logics. What does this entail within the university? Speaking as “unbearable presence,” that which cannot be accommodated within the university’s diversity regimes, Roy foregrounds modes of refusal and rebellion inspired by Black and postcolonial feminism. In particular, she shares, and calls for, forms of abolitionist struggle that challenge the university as propertied/policed order and stage the disinheritance of whiteness. To wage feminist struggle in the time of abolition is to refuse to “fit under the lease.”

Parity Talk: What’s Good?
Symposium collaboration of ETHZ + EPFL + TU Munich + TU Wien + GSD
Wednesday March 10, 8:30AM - 6PM CET / 2:30AM -12PM EST
Recordings can be found here: parity.arch.ethz.ch

A day-​long event on the 10th March hosted by the Parity Group at the ETH Zurich will be a collective questioning of ‘What’s Good?’. Together we will discuss our current understanding of good practice, who decides what is good, and the problems of education based on ideas of excellence. Joined by Womxn in Design from Harvard GSD, Claiming Spaces from TU Vienna, and the Parity Groups at EPFL and TU Munich, the Parity Talks 6 will be acting as the departure point for a season of digital events across the five institutions, propelling further debates on gender, equity, inclusion and belonging. See the full schedule here and the summary of conversations on our Miro board.

Eric Robsky Huntley Lecture
Up, Down, Around: Figuring Perspective for Feminist Pedagogy
Wednesday March 10, 4:45AM - 5:45AM

Roundtable Conversation: TU Wien + GSD Curriculum Change: Learning / Unlearning Taste  Wednesday March 10, 9:30AM - 11AM

Curriculum changes are the order of the day in many architecture schools. Who is included in the change making process and  gets a say in what comes and what stays? Do these changes go far enough to sustain equity, decolonize, and depatriarchize our age-old canonical syllabi? While some teaching formats are quick to change, some seem impossible to dispel. How can institutional activism help and steer consistent and meaningful change in architecture education and beyond? Online black activist Rachel Cargle speaks about the "Great Unlearn." Can we teach to unlearn? We will discuss the possibilities of radical changes in content and form within design institutions, (un)learning and listening to one another.

GSD panelists include faculty Lisa Haber-Thomson, Jenny French, Eric Robsky Huntley and K. Michael Hays (tbc)

Negotiation Workshop with Ming Thompson
Atelier Cho Thompson
Wednesday March 10, 1-2PM EST

Join us for an honest discussion with Ming Thompson on negotiation in design firm culture. Ming will be giving her advice on how to navigate salary and contract negotiations as well as what to do in situations when a designer's and client's values do not align.  

Ming Thompson is co-founder of Atelier Cho Thompson, a New Haven- and San Francisco-based multidisciplinary practice working between architecture, interiors, graphics, and strategy. ACT's work frequently blurs the boundaries between typologies, as they draw inspiration from their work in schools, museums, offices, restaurants, and homes around the world. Ming was a recipient of the AIA Young Architect Award in 2020, and her firm has been the recipient of numerous national and regional design awards. Through advocacy and project work, Ming is a champion for equity in the architectural profession.  Educated at Yale College and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Ming has taught at the California College of the Arts and has served on design juries around the U.S. Ming is a first-year advisor at Yale and serves on the board of Yale-China.

WiD Root Camp
Wednesday March 10, 5-6:15PM EST

Using a Pecha Kucha meets speed-dating style, Root Camp sparks conversation by presenting and fostering discussion around a variety of multi-media materials rooted at the role of womxn at the ‘grassroots’ level. During the session, we will alternate between viewing or listening to a selection as a larger group and reflecting on the content with partners in breakout rooms, 81 seconds with each partner -- representing the wage gap where the average woman earns $0.81 for each dollar earned by the average man in the United States. Root Camp promises to spark ideas, curiosities, connections, and questions over a wide range of materials in a short time. It is also a great way to make connections with students across the GSD!

Brown Bag Lunch with Catherine Seavitt Nordenson
Thursday March 11, 11AM- 12PM EST

Root Care: At-Home Face Masks

Thursday March 11, 8-9 PM

Friday March 12, 9-10 AM

In this often hectic and uncertain time, it is easy to forget the importance of nurturing our own personal wellness as a foundation to reaching our goals, as well as supporting the people and causes we care about. WiD hopes to provide a much-needed moment of reprieve with a relaxing and rejuvenating class on at-home face mask creation. During two complementary sessions, we will learn about the healing properties of products that you may already have in your kitchen, or can easily be purchased in many grocery stores, to explore a variety of face masks for varying skin types. Thursday’s session, 8-9PM EST, will focus on relaxation and healing, whereas on Friday morning, 9-10AM EST, we will look at ingredients that provide energy and rejuvenation.

Challenge our Roots: Advocacy in the Design Profession
Diane Jones Allen, Toni L. Griffin, Azzurra Cox, and Pascale Sablan

Co-organized with AASU, AfricaGSD and Notes on Credibility 

Friday March 12, 11-12 PM

Challenge our Roots: Advocacy in the Design Profession will bring student and professional leaders together to discuss avenues for change within the design profession. The panel will uplight anti-racist work taking place both within and outside of the GSD, with the hope of inspiring collaborations and further action. During the conversation, each expert will highlight their work and discuss common themes of engagement and empowerment. 

GRASSROOTS Projection

Projected on the façade of Gund Hall (48 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA), GRASSROOTS asks the viewer to consider their own passions, histories, relationships, and voice. The questions focus on conceptions of roots, rootedness, care, support, needs, and change, which are all essential to grassroots action and growth. The words will be shone throughout International Womxn’s Week, and serve as a framework for Womxn in Design’s program of events. 

Daily Care Packages