Design For Social Innovation
Learn the design mindsets and capabilities to support people and the planet.
- How can design shift us towards more healthy, caring systems?
- What conditions and collaborations enable communities, systems, and ecosystems to thrive?
- How can eco-social design increase innovation and our capacities for change?
CONGRATULATIONS
Honoring the Class of 2026
Class of 2026, your community collaborations and innovations in game design, play, advocacy, community engagement, urban development, craft, STEM education, memory, and emerging technologies guide us into the future – with vision, intentionality, and care – to make the world a better place.
As our Thesis Show 2026 keynote speaker, Tamika Abaka-Wood, reminds us: “Ethnography at its best closes the distance between you and others across culture, time, and socially constructed, yet entirely porous boundaries that traditional research methods usually shield you from. Ethnography is not a method but a disposition towards the world. It’s one that requires you to move your body, positionality, perspective, and framing over and over again.”
Wishing you all the best for your journey ahead. The world needs you.
Makeshift: Accountable Tech by Design
On May 20-21, join MakeShift 2026, the inaugural convening for designers, technologists, researchers, and advocates. This collective work means reimagining how digital systems are designed, governed, and made legible in their communities. Free for SVA students.
Embodied Design Lab Summer Course: June 2 – 25
Grounded in somatics, movement, contemplative practices, and sensory design, this online course offers nourishment and care for ourselves as we do work in our communities and interactive classes around embodied teaching and relational ecologies. 4 weeks (8 sessions).
Watch MFA DSI Thesis Show 2026
On May 12, through inspiring community-led interventions and with partners and collaborations out in the world, the MFA DSI Class of 2026 eco-social designers find power in proximity. Keynote speaker: Tamika Abaka-Wood, the founder of CornerBooth and Dial-An-Ancestor.
We Are Speaking / Estamos Hablando
Héctor “Chato” Ruiz (MFA DSI ’25)
We Are Speaking / Estamos Hablando creates spaces for community members to identify shared values, goals, and symbols, and to represent them as a group.