Design Justice: Resist and Reclaim Bibliography

Resist & Reclaim explores the contemporary and historical impacts of the built and visual environments on Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation movements in Minnesota. This applied research and creative community-centered project aims to understand and visualize the connection between Blackness and Indigeneity and the nuances of patriarchal affects in our movements; both their colonized and exploitative past of bodies, labor, land, and resources as well as the nuanced futurity of sovereignty and liberation. Our work will be used to reckon with local and broader histories—eventually leading us down a path of healing, reparations, and transformative justice. Resist refers to the daily resistance practices endured by those who radically labor to care for and sustain Black and Indigenous movements. Reclaim refers to the taking back of systems and structures that prioritize the value of women and femmes through actual material conditions.  

This bibliography explores the two project themes: resist and reclaim. Daily resistance such as: care, mothering, time, organizing, sustaining Black and Indigenous movements (e.g. the TRUTH Project, Black Lives Matter, the American Indian Movement (AIM), the Black Panther movement, and the Civil Rights Movement), abolition, environmental justice, and food justice. And radical reclamation such as: land, ownership of our bodies (e.g. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit (e.g. MMIW, MMIWG2S), Bring Back Our Girls), our value of personhood (in a non capitalistic and non-extractive way), reproductive rights and labor, creating a system of radical care.

Terresa Hardaway, PhD is a proud Black queer woman dedicated to the liberation of Black and brown people through art and design. She is the Creative Director at Blackbird Revolt and an Associate Professor of Graphic Design and the Director of Design Justice at the University of Minnesota.

Jessica Garcia Fritz is a professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota, and co-director of LAB-OR. As a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (Itazipco), her scholarship challenges architecture’s role in nation-state building through specification writing and the extraction of material territories in indigenous lands. 

• Design As Protest Collective

Anti-Racist designers dedicated to Design Justice in the built environment.

• Architecture Lobby

Looking at labor conditions of the architecture industry.

• The National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)

NOMA's mission, rooted in a rich legacy of activism, is to empower our local chapters and membership to foster justice and equity in communities of color through outreach, community advocacy, professional development, and design excellence.

• African American Graphic Designers (AAGD)

A non-traditional and culture-based collective of African American / Black Creatives that trains and supports creatives in visual communications and strengthens networks within the industry. 

• Black Designers United (BDU)

A private group for Black and other people of color who practice professional graphic, web, and interactive design to discuss issues in the design community, converse, critique work, network, and share advice. 

• American Institute of Architects (AIA)

The American Institute of Architects share resources for building a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture and community for architects.