+ It Is Time +
As graduate students in design, we believe now is the time to think critically about our education and the role we play in the professional design community. To you, the participants of this year’s symposium, we propose collaborating to set an agenda for a large-scale project that will benefit and support graduate students in design and our discipline as a whole—if there’s one thing you can say about graduate students it’s that we’re ambitious! We think it’s time to create an international “Graduate Design Network” that includes current students, recent alumni, and forward-thinking businesses. That’s why we’re turning our usual symposium format into a proposal to envision a new form of design collective among graduate students.
+ Collaboration +
We don’t have all the answers. That’s why the Proposium includes a range of speakers to inspire us, provoke conversation and present methods that we can use to create a new collaborative network. In addition, we will offer research-oriented workshops where we can discuss, map, and solidify a shared vision of the network. From there, we will form task forces to continue the mission of the organization with actionable steps to make it a reality. We believe that graduate symposiums provide a rare opportunity to come together and share perspectives on design—wait, why the heck is that rare?! For us, that’s just one of many questions driving our proposal. We hope you’ve got some nagging questions of your own and that Proposium will be a place where we can find the answers, together.
Come experience a little Southern hospitality, get to know your graduate peers from around the country, and participate in building something bigger than all of us. We look forward to hearing from you soon and meeting you in November!