LESLEY-ANN NOEL
BIO
Lesley-Ann Noel is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Design Studies at North Carolina State University. She has a BA in Industrial Design from the Universidade Federal do Paraná, in Curitiba, Brazil. She has a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. She earned her Ph.D. in Design from North Carolina State University in 2018.
Lesley-Ann practices design through emancipatory, critical, and anti-hegemonic lenses, focusing on equity, social justice, and the experiences of people who are often excluded from design research. Her research also highlights the work of designers outside of Europe and North America as an act of decolonizing design. She also attempts to promote greater critical awareness among designers and design students by introducing critical theory concepts and vocabulary into the design studio e.g. through The Designer’s Critical Alphabet.
Lesley-Ann’s research interests are emancipatory research centered around the perspectives of those who would traditionally be excluded from research, community-led research, design-based learning, and design thinking. She practices primarily in the area of social innovation, education, futures workshops and public health. She is co-Chair of the Pluriversal Design Special Interest Group of the Design Research Society.
Before joining North Carolina State University, she was the Associate Director of Design Thinking for Social Impact at Tulane University, and she was a lecturer at Stanford University and the University of the West Indies.
RESEARCH STATEMENT
Due to my interest in making design education more relevant to under-represented audiences, I actively develop my classes, research and projects through an emancipatory and critical lens, seeking to focus on groups of people who may be traditionally excluded from research and design practice. An example of this is my PhD research: “Teaching and Learning Design Thinking through a Critical Lens at a Primary School in Rural Trinidad and Tobago”. An emancipatory theoretical perspective guided the study, one aim of which was to challenge the current primary education paradigm in Trinidad and Tobago and to present a viable alternative that builds on the pedagogical style and content of design classes.
In this study I taught design thinking to elementary school students and observed how they engaged critical thinking skills and empathy. I also explored if a design thinking curriculum applied at a young age could build better awareness of social problems among children or could create a sense of agency among them. The findings indicated that there are many ways to build empathy and critical thinking skills, as well as a sense of empowerment in children as they respond to design problems, even in a rural, low-resourced context. In future research, I plan to conduct longitudinal studies to track the impact of design education on the cognitive and social development of the participants.
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
Noel, L.-A. (2021). Encountering development in social design education: Critical approaches for global social design education. In E. Bohemia, L. M. Nielsen, L. Pan, N. A. G. Z. Börekçi, & Y. Zhang (Eds.), Proceedings of the DRS Learn X Design 2021: 6th International Conference for Design Education Researchers (Vol. 1, pp. 255–263). Design Research Society. doi:10.21606/drs_lxd2021.04.275
Noel, L.-A. Leitão, R.M., Korsmeyer, H., Beniwal, S. & Winchester, W.W. (2021). Alternative Problem Framing in Design Education. In E. Bohemia, L. M. Nielsen, L. Pan, N. A. G. Z. Börekçi, & Y. Zhang (Eds.), Proceedings of the DRS Learn X Design 2021: 6th International Conference for Design Education Researchers (Vol. 1, pp. 255–263). Design Research Society. doi:10.21606/drs_lxd2021.00.314
Noel, L. (2021). "Here’s what we really want your class to be about!". Design And Technology Education: An International Journal, 26(4), 50-70. Retrieved from https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/DATE/article/view/2991
Noel, L.A., & Paiva, M. (2021). Learning to recognize exclusion. Journal of Usability Studies, 16(2), 63–72
Noel, L., Liu, T. L., & Rider, T. R. (2021). Developing Thinking Skills in a 4th Grade Design Studio in Trinidad and Tobago. In Neimann, T., Felix, J. J., Reeves, S., & Shliakhovchuk, E. (Ed.), Stagnancy Issues and Change Initiatives for Global Education in the Digital Age (pp. 15-39). IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-4993-3.ch002
Noel, L.(2020) Envisioning a pluriversal design education, in Leitão, R., Noel, L. and Murphy, L. (eds.), Pivot 2020: Designing a World of Many Centers - DRS Pluriversal Design SIG Conference, 4 June, held online. https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2020.021
Noel, L. (2020, November 17). A Designer Teaches People How to See Others Who Are Not Like Them. Retrieved January 06, 2021, from https://hyperallergic.com/601804/a-designer-teaches-people-how-to-see-others-who-are-not-like-them/
Noel, L. M. (2020, October 23). Terms of Service: October Edition. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://designobserver.com/feature/terms-of-service-october-edition/40339/
Leitão, D., and Noel, D. (2020) DRS2020 Editorial: Pluriversal Design SIG, in Boess, S., Cheung, M. and Cain, R. (eds.), Synergy - DRS International Conference 2020, 11-14 August, Held online. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2020.106
Noel, L.-A. M., Liu, T. L., & Rider, T. R. (2019). Fostering empathy among through design thinking among children in rural Trinidad. International Research & Education in Design Conference 2019 — REDES2019.
Noel, L.-A., Liu, T. L., & Rider, T. R. (2019). Design Thinking and Empowerment of Students in Trinidad and Tobago. Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry, 11(3), 52–66. doi: 10.18733/cpi29503
Leitão, R. M., & Noel, L. M. (2018, December 31). Reflection on Keynote Debate 3: Whose Design? Retrieved from https://www.designresearchsociety.org/articles/reflection-on-keynote-debate-3-whose-design?
Noel, L. M. (2018, November 27). Teaching and learning design thinking through a critical lens at a primary school in rural Trinidad and Tobago (Doctoral dissertation, North Carolina State University, 2018).
Noel, L., and Leitão, R. (2018) Editorial: Not Just From the Centre, in Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2017.006
Noel, L., and O'Neill, M. (2018) Puerto Rico 2054: design pedagogy in a time of crisis, in Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.351
Noel L (2017) Imperatives for Design Education in Places other than Europe or North America! In R. Matteus-Berr Art and Design Education in Times of Change1st Edition pp. 25 – 29 Vienna De Gruyter,
Noel, L., and Liu, T. (2016) Using Design Thinking to create a new education paradigm for elementary level children for higher student engagement and success, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.200
Noel, L. (2016) Promoting an emancipatory research paradigm in Design Education and Practice, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.355
Noel, L. and Lee Poy, M. (2015) Ministry of Design – From Cottage Industry to State Enterprise Conference Proceedings September 2015.
Noel, L. M. (2015). Creating Caribbean Stories Through Design . LearnxDesign The 3rd International Conference for Design Education Researchers, 3, 1118-1131. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.2904.6880.
Noel, Lesley-Ann. (2015) Using Design Strategies Against ‘Wicked Problems’ and to promote Sustainable Development with a focus on St. Vincent. St. Vincent and the Grenadines Country Conference 2015. Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. March 11-12, 2015.
Noel, Lesley-Ann. (2015) Envisioning a Future Design Education in vulnerable economies INSIGHT 2015 – National Institute of Design, Bangalore, India January 23 – 24, 2015.
Noel, Lesley-Ann. (2014) Developing a design curriculum for rural entrepreneurs of the arts and crafts sector in the Eastern Caribbean Paper presented at the 19th DMI: Academic Design Management Conference – “Design Management in an Era of Disruption, Design Management Institute, London September 2 – 4, 2014.
Noel, L. (2012) “Creating a Transnational Experience in Art and Design Education in the Caribbean via Social Media” American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Design Education Conference - “Geographics: design education and the transnational terrain” Hawaii, December 2012
Noel, L & Charles, A. (2012) "Enhancing competitiveness in the Arts and Crafts sector in the OECS through strategy and technical assistance" A Solutions Agenda to Key Competitiveness Challenges - The Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness 1st Caribbean Competitiveness Forum
Technical Reports
“Export Development Strategy and Action Plan for the Arts and Crafts Sector of Guyana” Lesley-Ann Noel, February 2017
“Technical Assistance Plan – A Diagnostic review of the OECS-EDU Clients in the Arts and Crafts Secto r” Alicia Charles and Lesley-Ann Noel, February 2011
“Strategic Plan – A Diagnostic review of the OECS-EDU Clients in the Arts and Crafts Sector” Alicia Charles and Lesley-Ann Noel, February 2011
DOWNLOADABLE MATERIALS
"Who Am I"
Positionality Wheel
This Positionality wheel can help participants reflect on their identities in an individual or group activity.
Ask participants to share the elements of their identity that they are comfortable discussing.
Then have them discuss the group's diversity or lack thereof.
This activity can be done face to face on paper or remotely by adding it to a remote collaboration app e.g. Miro or Mural.
When using a remote collaboration app, have participants work in an anonymous mode for best results.
MY CLIENTS
A few of my clients from over the years