Workshop/Demo Belonging in San Diego: How design contributes to our shared future
Workshop/Demo Belonging in San Diego: How design contributes to our shared future
The Othering and Belonging Institute invites you to join us and fellow belonging co-creators for a two-hour workshop exploring the importance of designing for belonging in San Diego and beyond. The session will offer grounding in belonging and dig into practices that bring it to life. We will hear from designers across varying scopes and learn how they actively advance belonging through their work. We will engage participants through discussion and questions, creating a space of shared meaning-making and inspired action. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how to actively build for belonging, make connections to fellow belonging builders, and take home insight and inspiration of how they too can incorporate belonging into their work and lives.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Shalem Aboody-López has over 20 years of experience as a social justice planner and policy advocate working with communities facing environmental injustices. Shalem works at the San Diego Air Pollution Control District’s Office of Environmental Justice, supporting communities to address air quality impacts of harmful policies and planning. They are also Founder of Pueblo Planning, where they facilitate community storytelling processes and provide visual and audio art services to advance social justice and uplift the experiences and vision of Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (QTBIPOC) and other marginalized communities. Shalem applies a community and justice-centered framework as lecturer at San Diego State University.
Eden Brukman is Chief Sustainability Officer for the County of San Diego. She leads the Office of Sustainability and Environmental Justice, which advances collaborative sustainability solutions throughout the organization and across the region that remove systemic inequities and environmental burdens. For almost three decades, Eden has worked in this field as a civil servant, advisor, advocate, educator, standards developer, licensed architect, outreach strategist, and visual communicator.
Aarti Singh is a transdisciplinary visual artist and storyteller whose work focuses on identity and the human experience. Her mediums include immersive photo/video exhibitions, film, digital and print for news outlets as well as features by Instagram. Her work exposes audiences to a spectrum of themes in a unique and thought provoking manner. Prior to this role, Aarti worked at UNICEF in Washington DC, advocating for child rights on Capitol Hill and mobilizing the local community. She’s been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting as a grantee and by UNICEF as a Global Citizenship Fellow. Her most recent short film, Sheer Qorma tells the tale of acceptance and love, through queer, Muslim women of color from a South Asian lens. You can see works from her portfolio in The New York Times, VICE Magazine, The Guardian, NPR, and Instagram. Currently, Aarti is working on designing an immersive, multisensory experience focused on global migration. Among Aarti’s passions is also a love for cultural preservation through ancient architectural restoration. Ask her about her portfolio of restored pieces.
About the Host
The Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley & Ashley Gallegos
The Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley advances groundbreaking approaches to transforming structural marginalization and inequality. We are scholars, organizers, communicators, researchers, artists, and policymakers committed to building a world where all people belong.
Ashley Gallegos leads the Places of Belonging work at the Othering and Belonging Institute. Her work focuses on advancing belonging in collaboration with people, groups, and institutions through a place-based approach with a global connection. Ashley believes in the power of belonging and is inspired by its ability to invite people and places to build for the betterment of ourselves, our communities, and our shared world.
