What does regenerative thinking mean in higher education? What would a regenerative educational future look and feel like for all of those engaged: from undergraduate students, to HDR candidates, to teaching staff? Join a lively panel discussion with Andrea Siodmok and Chris Speed, chaired by Naomi Stead, as they argue for a fundamental reimagining of how Australian universities approach research-related education - including at RMIT. Regenerative thinking allows a shift beyond traditional concepts of 'sustainability' which, while sorely needed, need to go further to address the climate crisis. A regenerative futures framing offers the promise of extending the fundamental tenets of sustainability - environmental conservation, economic stability, and social equity - to embrace a dynamic, entangled complexity of the human and more-than-human worlds. And in considering what all this means for higher education and research, including for HDR candidates, the panellists will question how we might cast future higher education experiences into a regenerative context that is productive and nourishing, based on care, and that considers people, planets and the systems and processes that connect us?

Speakers

Professor Naomi Stead is Director of the Design and Creative Practice Enabling Impact Platform at RMIT, where she works with researchers across the creative fields to engage in interdisciplinary research leading to social and environmental benefit. Throughout her academic career she has been committed to research-based advocacy - particularly into gender equity and work-related wellbeing in creative workplaces. Stead has a particular focus on understanding the experiences of marginalised groups, including the LGBTIQ+ community. She is widely published as a critic and commentator – most recently as architecture critic for The Saturday Paper. In 2023 she was the recipient of the Bates Smart Award for Architecture in the Media.

Chris Speed FRSE, FRSA is Professor of Design for Regenerative Futures at RMIT, Melbourne, Australia, where he collaborates with a wide variety of communities and partners to explore how design provides methods to adapt toward becoming a regenerative society. Chris has an established track record in directing large complex grants and educational programmes with academic, industry and third sector partners, that apply design and data methods to social, environmental and economic challenges.

Professor Andrea Siodmok OBE is Dean of the RMIT School of Design. Andrea is an internationally renowned expert in design and was previously Chief Impact Officer at The RSA in the UK. Prior to this, she founded the UK Government’s multi-award-winning Policy Innovation Unit to bring design, digital and data science skills to policy-makers. In this capacity, Andrea delivered over 100 policy innovation projects for government departments under three British Prime Ministers. She was also previously Chief Design Officer at the UK Design Council and Design Director at the UK’s business innovation accelerator for the built environment and smart cities, the Connected Places Catapult.

The DSC Doctoral Research Conference brings together the College's three existing symposia – Practice Research Symposium (PRS), Urban Futures Symposium and Social Change Symposium – to create a shared space for innovation, sustainability and resilience aligned with the theme of regenerative futures.