“But, why the South?”

Since I began to share the vision for The South Design Research Studio, this is often one of the first questions I get and, understandably so. Honestly, there are too many reasons, from personal to professional, for me to ever answer succinctly. But, to narrow it down to the top three:

• I love the surprising diversity of communities. Despite what is shown in most popular media, communities in the American South, Latin America, and the Caribbean are home to a rich mosaic of Indigenous, African, European, and Asian cultures, who are all active contributors to the historical and present-day dynamics. I would love to see those in conversation about social change understand and amplify that diversity as we design the future.

• I’m curious about how we might create intentional collaboration and learning spaces that disrupt unfair power dynamics. The region is deeply connected through shared histories of genocide, exploitative labor, and oppression as well as economic ties, migration patterns and institutional initiatives. As a result, there’s also a deep history of community organizing and collective action. I believe highlighting and sharing past and current work across Southern States and South America will be key to any hopes of authentically advancing towards equity.

• The American South, Latin America, and the Caribbean have the highest rates of inequality when it comes to wealth, health, education and other positive social outcomes (though these outcomes do differ greatly depending on country, city, and even down to neighborhood, on regional and global scale). Especially as policies look to become more harmful for people who are already the most harmed, it will become more important to apply the word innovation in creative, yet responsible ways to support community wellbeing in the South.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to why I’m excited about this work, but, what about you?

The more reasons I have and hear, the more focused and inspired I feel, so please do share by responding to this e-mail.

With gratitude,
Keara Cormier-Hill
Founder, The South Design Research Studio

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