Join the Taylor Center for its first Social Innovation Conversation (SIC) of the 2020-2021 academic year.

This event kicks off Taylor’s Social Innovation Conversation (SIC) series, a program from the Research and Scholarship team which is aimed at scholars, faculty, community partners, and anyone interested in the ways their research efforts connect with the pursuit of social innovation and changemaking.

The purpose of this scholarly conversation is to feature Taylor’s research & scholarship work presented at the International Social Innovation Research (ISIRC) conference. ISIRC is the world’s leading interdisciplinary social innovation research conference, bringing together scholars from around the world to share ideas and discuss social innovation from varied academic and theoretical perspectives. The theme of this year’s conference (Sept 1-3, 20) centered around social innovation and enterprise as avenues to develop prosperous, fair, and sustainable societies.

Dr. Anna Monhartova presented her work on sports-based youth development and hybrid opportunities using an ecosystems approach.

Dr. Máille Faughnan spoke about design thinking and empowerment. She presented a case study on how staff of a Kenyan NGO translated the mainstream version of design thinking into relational, experimental and empathetic approaches to navigating everyday situations.

Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel shared her work on the use of speculation, Utopian ideals and Afrofuturism with design thinking as a tool for empowerment for people with minoritized identities.

Dr. Laura Murphy and Dr. Joshua Schoop (former Taylor Center research fellow and SISE instructor) presented “A Map of the Landscape of Social Innovation”, which will be coming out soon as a Taylor Provocations paper.