From Classroom to Community

Design Justice in Detroit

UMSI's Design Justice course takes students beyond campus and into Detroit, where history, relationships, and lived experience reshape how they think about technology and design.

What happens when you take a four-hour graduate seminar out of the classroom and onto a bus bound for Detroit?

For students in SI 511: Design Justice, it means trading textbook theories for the literal, concrete fabric of the city.

While UMSI stands on a firm foundation following last year’s record-breaking enrollment, the primary driver for incoming students has become a deep hunger for a "humanistic" approach to technology. Students are increasingly prioritizing social impact over traditional corporate tech career paths. Under the guidance of lecturer Laura Murphy, SI 511 challenges students to think differently about what it means to design technology, emphasizing that effective design begins not with solutions, but with relationships.

Built around the ten principles of design justice, the course asks students to reconsider the role of the designer. Rather than approaching communities as experts arriving to solve problems, students learn to become thoughtful collaborators who listen first, build trust, and design alongside the people most affected by their work.

Admittedly, taking a month-long intensive course in the field comes with a spike of initial logistical anxiety. "The initial reaction from students is, 'How am I going to get there? Are we carpooling? Where do I park?'" Murphy recalled with a laugh. "There were some barriers. But once you just do it, it is so fun."

Those questions quickly faded as weekly bus tours transformed the city into an extension of the classroom, altering how students cognitively processed design equity.

Guided by Jamon Jordan, Detroit's official historian, students explored neighborhoods including Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, learning how decades of racial segregation, urban renewal, and highway construction continue to shape communities today.

For one architecture student, standing in Lafayette Park fundamentally changed her understanding of the built environment. While she had previously studied the area's celebrated modernist buildings, seeing the highways constructed over displaced Black neighborhoods gave new meaning to concepts she had only encountered in textbooks. "Seeing things in person is so much different cognitively for your brain than reading it out of a book," Murphy said.

The intensive four-week course culminated in a final Project Exhibition and Networking Event at the UM Detroit Center on Woodward Avenue. Rather than presenting to a closed classroom, students pitched their projects directly to the Detroit Center staff and local design experts.

The resulting projects showcased the sheer brilliance of the cohort, who went above and beyond to connect with local stakeholders. Some of the projects included:

• Maternal Health: One pregnant student mapped out critical resources to combat the staggering statistic that the mortality rate for Black women in Detroit is 4.5 times higher than for white women.

• Food Sovereignty: Another student coordinated visits to seven different urban farms and local food markets to analyze the deep tensions between on-the-ground agriculture efforts and city council policies.

• Vulnerable Populations: Students carefully navigated sensitive interview studies, including a former DACA recipient who humanized the storytelling process for local recipients, and another student who designed a housing platform to support LGBTQ youth.

Throughout the course, students consistently reached beyond classroom expectations, building relationships with community organizations, libraries, and local leaders to better understand the people and places shaping their work.

"They really made it what it was," Murphy reflected. "They were already cold-calling organizations and walking down to libraries on day one. That is kind of the dream as a teacher."

The course stands as a strong example of UMSI's commitment to experiential learning, championed in partnership with the Engaged Learning Office (ELO). By connecting students directly with communities, history, and lived experience, these opportunities remind us that preparing future information professionals requires more than technical expertise. It requires curiosity, humility, and a genuine commitment to understanding the people technology is meant to serve.