Dear DJN Signatories, Members, Node Facilitators, and Subscribers,

Welcome to the first DJN Update for 2026! We have a set of exciting new offerings and announcements for design justice practitioners, a brief finances update, a note about the evolution of DJN governance, a note about conflict, and a reminder about the winter seasonal pause.

1. Offerings & Announcements

And Also Too Design Justice Practice Circle

The Design Justice Practice Circle logo with a black textured background featuring a vibrant red circular shape with rough, hand-painted edges. The circle has a subtle blue-purple glow radiating outward. Centered on the red circle is black text in a bold, condensed sans-serif font that reads "DESIGN JUSTICE PRACTICE CIRCLE" stacked in four lines. The overall design has a risograph aesthetic with high contrast between the bright red and deep black background.

We are thrilled to share a new offering from And Also Too: the Design Justice Practice Circle (https://www.andalsotoo.net/design-justice-practice-circle ), a learning community for designers at any experience level. Here, members will work to sharpen the ways we practice design and design justice while deepening our political education. And Also Too is a design justice studio that works in collaboration with movements and communities to make media, tools, and technology for collective liberation. And Also Too, led by Creative Director Una Lee, facilitated and synthesized the Design Justice Network Principles and designed DJN’s visual identity. Una co-founded DJN and served on the Steering Committee until 2021.

Please visit the Design Justice Practice Circle webpage (https://www.andalsotoo.net/design-justice-practice-circle ) for more information and sign up for the newsletter (https://www.andalsotoo.net/djpc-updates-signup-form-page ) for updates on workshops, cohorts, and future membership opportunities. DJN is excited to announce that we are supporting the Design Justice Practice Circle with a $50,000 grant!

Pause and Effect Two-Part Workshop: “From House to Garden, an Exploration of Coloniality in Design and Research”

A promotional image split into two sections. On the left, dirt-covered hands hold earthworms in dark soil against a black background. On the right, white text displays event information: "pause + effect" logo; "From House to Garden: A two-part exploration of coloniality in design and research.” Event dates in an orange box: "Jan 22 and Feb 5, 2026, On Zoom. "Orange halftone dot patterns accent the corners.

Pause and Effect (https://www.pauseandeffect.ca ) is a decolonial design studio located on Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Nations; also known as Vancouver. Pause and Effect supports designers and organizations to re-member research, design, and ways of being as relational - restoring balance between humans, land, and the more-than-human world. Through the referral of UK Local Node facilitators, we are able to partner with Pause and Effect to offer a 2-part workshop series for a limited number of Design Justice Network members (up to 20 spots). If you register, please ensure that you are available to attend both sessions. Registration link with more details on the workshop offering can be found here: https://events.humanitix.com/from-house-to-garden-a-two-part-exploration-of-coloniality-in-design-and-research

Part One: Deconstructing the House. January 22, 2026 | 9:00–10:30am PT
Part Two: Stewarding the Garden. February 5, 2026 | 9:00–10:30am PT

In order to best support Pause and Effect in planning the workshop space, we are asking that folks only submit a registration if you are absolutely able to and planning to attend. If something comes up, please let us know so we can offer your spot to somebody on the waiting list. We are super excited for this offering and hope that many of you will be able to join!

2. Grants to local nodes and organizations

This year, we met with all active DJN Local Nodes, and (among other topics) offered financial support for local node activities and locally aligned organizing efforts.

UK North

We have sent $5,000 to the UK North Local Node to use in whatever way is most helpful to their work. They will build infrastructures and resources to support design justice aligned practices in the Manchester area.

W.E.B. DuBois Movement School

On the recommendation of the Philly Local Node, we will be making a $5,000 gift to the W.E.B. DuBois Movement School for Abolition and Reconstruction (https://abolitionschool.org ).

Chicago Mutual Aid Efforts

Facilitated by the Chicago Local Node, a grant of $5,000 will be distributed across neighborhood-specific mutual aid networks, and a large portion will be sent to Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD, https://www.organizedcommunities.org ).

3. Finances

In 2025 we were able to continue key network administration, offer in-person workshops and DiscoTechs in Detroit and New York, and seed a community DiscoTech book project which will be released in 2026. We also organized an in-person gathering for the steering committee and hired facilitators to support the network governance transition process. We participated in a collaboration of DiscoTechs in New Jersey and Brooklyn with the Critical AI Institute at Rutgers, in support of the Design Justice AI series that brought together multiple universities from four continents and convened in Australia, South Africa, and the US (see https://criticalai.org/designjustice ).

DJN was able to provide $50,000 in funding for And Also Too to run a design justice practice circle (see above), $4,000 to Pause and Effect, and allocate $5,000 grants to 3 local nodes to spend as they choose (some will be disbursed in early 2026). We ended 2025 with $103,383.60 in our accounts. The following table provides a quick visual summary of our 2025 expenses (or click here for a text-only version):

A spreadsheet that summarizes DJN finances in 2023, 2024, and 2025. For a text-only version, please see this link.

4. Evolving DJN Governance

We remain committed to evolve the governance of DJN and move beyond the current Steering Committee structure. This fall, we met with DJN Local Node facilitators to have conversations, learn more about their experiences, challenges, and hopes, explore people’s capacity to take on leadership roles, discuss the future of the network, and also to offer redistribution of resources in the form of grants and contracts. We reached out to all active Local Nodes and met with those who had capacity and interest: UK North, Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, and New Delhi. We also met with an advisory council of design justice practitioners. Early this year, we will share more about where these conversations landed. We recognize that there are many active and dedicated DJN members we haven’t had conversations with; we always welcome suggestions, dialogue, and proposals - please reach out to designjusticenetwork@gmail.com.

5. Conflict

The current DJN Steering Committee has been continuing our work with Ray at Red Kitchen Table. We’ve been focused on developing alignment about what is ours to hold and not hold in the rupture with former SC members and contractors. (To be clear, we are not in a conflict mediation process with the former SC members and contractors). We deeply appreciate the time and energy so many of you have put in to discuss this difficult topic with us, those who have provided critique, care, and feedback, and to all those who have responded to our requests to have conversations.

6. Closing thoughts

We have massive love and gratitude for everyone who is part of DJN, and for everyone who has been doing design justice beyond DJN and since before this network existed! We see how so many of you are doing your best to do this work under extremely difficult conditions. We appreciate those who have shown up for our calls for participation, and also those who didn’t have the capacity to do so.

2025 was a difficult year for many reasons. We arrived at a place that we couldn’t have predicted. The process has been hard, but it has brought many deep and necessary conversations with active members. We’ve done a lot of reflection on our place in movement organizing, responsibility, how we move and show up, as well as on the power this network has gained, and how to wield it responsibly.

We hope that many of you will be able to participate in the powerful offerings described at the beginning of this newsletter, as we move into the new year.

In love and solidarity,

Nour, Wes, Sasha, Elena, and Boaz, for the Design Justice Network Steering Committee

PS: DJN Quarterly Seasonal Pause: January 8 - 20

DJN has a longstanding practice of quarterly Seasonal Pauses. During this time, the DJN Steering Committee and key Contractors pause DJN-specific emails, social media accounts, and work on specific projects, wherever possible. Explore the history of DJN Seasonal Pauses through archived announcements on our News page. This winter, we will be taking a seasonal pause for January 2026.