As designers, our task is often to build a better future and bring others into that future. That’s how we make change happen. And sparking change begins with the act of envisioning the future. In these unprecedented times of extreme uncertainty, we are all questioning what that future may look like in academia while quickly coping with the new normal. I believe we can co-create a space to find the courage to embrace ambiguity, practice whole-human skills and generate new possibilities together.

Interdisciplinary collaboration opens up new perspectives, unleashes imagination and provides a sense of renewal between class projects. With a horizontal approach of teaching, where students are also considered contributors of knowledge, I systematically organized "Inspiration Sessions" where I invited professionals from different disciplines to our classroom to share an empowering moment with us. These moments included workshops, discussions, debates, storytelling, critiques and collaborative opportunities. We used Miro and Zoom to activate sharing.

For example, this spirit allowed the possibility to collaborate with Lisa Maione’s design history students in KCAI. Our students wrote and designed a collective book, called Seeking Plural Narratives, and created creative videos to challenge the current Eurocentric design and typographic cultures.

During mindful check-ins, using Google Form, where students express their feelings and thoughts anonymously to meet each other where we are, I received numerous positive feedback about how refreshing and constructive our Inspiration sessions were. They enabled the possibility to nourish ourselves while creating a sense of belonging to a community, with its own rituals—its unique humanity—to accept the journey towards the unknown during a pandemic and go beyond ambiguity.

Deeply listening is key to get inspired when guests and visiting artists opened up their calendars for us. Students wrote reflections after every Inspiration Session where they stated in 250 to 300 words or in a 2-minute video, three things that stood out to them, one thing that made sense to them, and one question they had.