Type Electives Lecture Series:

Futuress unveiled: on hopes, struggles, and possibilities of feminist practices

In this session, Maya will delve into the mission of Futures, a feminist platform for design politics, intertwined with her personal journey accompanied by the concept of the feminist killjoy, as proposed by feminist author Sara Ahmed. Discussing the collaborative efforts that underpin Futuress, we will shed light on the community dynamics and collaborations encompassing the struggles, possibilities, and hopes inherent in feminist work.

Each talk will be about 30–45 mins long followed by a short Q&A.

The event will be hosted online via Zoom.

We look forward to having you with us!

FUTURESS

Futuress is a hybrid between a learning community and a publishing platform. Their mission is to radically democratize design education and amplify marginalized voices. Through various free public programs, Futuress problematizes the role of design and foster critical thinking. Their work is literally for the future: trying to bring people together and support the Futuress community to craft their own narratives. One story inspires; many stories can ignite a movement!

Maya Ober

Maya Ober (she/her) is an activist, designer, turned anthropologist, and educator temporarily based in Basel, Switzerland. As a trained industrial designer, she co-ran a design practice for several years while also taking part in different activist collectives in Jaffa-Tel Aviv. Believing in the socially transformative potential of education, Maya co-conceptualized Imagining-Otherwise, Intersectional Lab in Arts and Design, and initiated feminist curricula. As a lecturer and doctoral researcher at the Institute of Social Anthropology, her work delves into feminist practices in design within institutional contexts, employing an engaged anthropological perspective. In 2017, she founded depatriarchise design, which in 2021 merged with Futuress. As a co-director, along with Mio Kojima, Maya is responsible for curating the Futuress learning program and securing the finances—including writing funding applications, outreach, filing taxes, and other administrative tasks—to keep the platform flourishing in the years to come. As co-editor-in-chief, she collaborates with authors to expand the Futuress universe of voices and vantage points.