“Tunstall gives step-by-step instructions for reducing bigotry’s impact on the built environment,” The New York Times Book Review
From the excesses of world expositions to myths of better living through technology, modernist design, in its European-based guises, has excluded and oppressed the very people whose lands and lives it reshaped. Decolonizing Design first asks how modernist design has encompassed and advanced the harmful project of colonization—then shows how design might address these harms by re-centering its theory and practice in global Indigenous cultures and histories.
A leading figure in the movement to decolonize design, Dori Tunstall uses hard-hitting real-life examples and case studies drawn from over fifteen years of working to transform institutions to better reflect the lived experiences of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities. Her book is at once enlightening, inspiring, and practical, interweaving her lived experiences with extensive research to show what decolonizing design means, how it heals, and how to practice it in our institutions today.
Buy the Decolonizing Design book! One of the goals of Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook is to support Indigenous, Black, and People of Color [IBPOC] communities. If it is possible for you, please purchase the book at local IBPOC booksellers or directly from MIT Press
Decolonizing Design is available at these mainstream, non-IBPOC, retailers and independent booksellers
“In Decolonizing Design Tunstall offers an on-the-ground look at the ways modernist design has colonized and oppressed Indigenous, Black, Asian, and Latinx communities, and offers practical and forward-looking ways of rethinking design. Tunstall is clear-eyed in her account of the difficulty of the work and the wounds it might open in the effort to heal and connect.” – The Boston Globe
Finally, a comprehensive, substantive, and practical book to inform decision-makers. I’ll be referencing it regularly with both students and administrators.”– Mindy Magyar (Mi’kmaq, Sipekneꞌkatik First Nation), Associate Professor, College of Art and Design, Faculty Associate, Office of the Provost, Rochester Institute of Technology
Dori Tunstall is a trailblazer! Her book serves as a critical addition to the canon of design, exposing the lies and misinterpretations often hidden within modernist pedagogies.” – Kevin Bethune, author of Reimagining Design; founder of dreams • design + life
“A once-in-a-decade book! An inspiring, informative, and powerful blueprint that can enable any of us to engage with a topic of our time— decolonization.” Rama Gheerawo, The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, author of Creative Leadership: Born from Design
Dr. Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall is a design anthropologist, author, and organizational catalyst and executive coach with her company, Dori Tunstall, Inc.
A recognized leader in the decolonization of art and design education, she received the 2022 Sir Misha Black Award for Distinguished Service to Design Education as well as the inaugural BADG of Honour for Design Education from the Black Artists and Designers Guide.
With a global career, Dori served as the Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University in Canada, where she was the first black and black female dean of a faculty of design anywhere. She was an Associate Professor of Design Anthropology and Associate Dean at Swinburne University in Australia. She wrote the biweekly column Un-Design for The Conversation Australia. In the U.S., she taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work has been featured in Print magazine, Fast Company, AIGA’s Eye on Design, and Design Observer, among other venues.
Illustrations
By Ene Agi
decolonizingdesignbook.com 
