Fifteen years after its inception, the Olin capstone has a new name that better represents the work students, faculty and their community partners undertake together: Design Justice Studio.
DJS is one of three capstone opportunities for Olin students. Every year, teams of Olin, Babson and Wellesley students work on projects focused on making a positive difference in society and the environment, guided by an experienced faculty advisor. Projects span multiple years and cover five areas: Air Quality, Community Development, Food Processing, Global Health and Just Energy.
DJS students met with community members in Galena Park, TX, on a trip to work with their partner, Environmental Community Advocates of Galena Park (ECAGP).
“In the beginning, affordable was the word we chose to signal equitable design and entrepreneurship with respect to each community’s social, political, economic and environmental context. We minimized the moral threshold created by the name so that a wide range of students could access the experience,” explained Benjamin Linder, professor of design and mechanical engineering and director of DJS.
However, as the capstone evolved, its intentions no longer matched its name. DJS will turn fifteen at the end of 2025. Ten years after its inception, DJS capstone faculty knew it was time for a re-brand. While the pandemic slowed the process, faculty and students were finally able to start a new academic year with a program name that matches its purpose.
“Students attracted to design and entrepreneurship didn’t expect our focus on justice. Students who cared about justice were asking how our practices were just. Potential collaborators questioned our values because they sounded economic, even capitalistic, which some saw as part of the problem,” said Linder.
“With Design Justice Studio, we wanted a name that clearly signaled a space for working in the public interest, a space for having responsibility for societal outcomes, a space for practicing courage to do the right thing,” said Linder. “We sought truth in advertising, so people would feel the experience they had with the program matched what we said it was about.”
The faculty solicited input from students to identify what they found exciting, important, and meaningful about the capstone experience, what they most needed or wanted to convey about their work to others, and which values they would want to express to others through a name. Then, the DJS team reached out to their partners and collaborators to ask for their feedback and sought input from Olin leadership.
Our original name served us well for many years, and it was of a time; we changed, and the world changed around us.
The program has grown to encompass a broad range of community engagement and change-making practices in the pursuit of more just outcomes."
Benjamin Linder
Professor of Design and Mechanical Engineering and Director of DJS
“The program has grown to encompass a broad range of community engagement and change-making practices in the pursuit of more just outcomes,” explained Linder. “The new name reflects distributive and representational justice, aligns with the emerging design justice framework, and signals to students and collaborators that the course is committed to meaningful, equitable social and environmental impact.”
“Our transition from ADE to DJS aligns with the way students are thinking and feeling their way through their career path in general and engineering specifically in an extremely uncertain, deeply inequitable, interconnected yet polarized world,” said Kofi Taha, senior lecturer in design & community engaged learning.
“It is such an honor for me to be part of a team that offers a space where working through the relationship between ethics, power, values and personal responsibility is welcomed and expected and to then hear consistently from our alums that their time engaging with us on these issues profoundly shaped their professional trajectories.”
DJS students participated in a standout to act in solidarity with communities who call Plymouth, MA, home, including the Herring Pond Wampanoag.
“Students are better prepared for professional and civic life because of DJS,” said Linder. “Over and over again, we see how practicing public work at Olin results in civic-mindedness and participation after Olin.
“This change sees us continuously evolving, taking risks and striving to set a unique example in higher education, which is what we know our community hopes for and expects of Olin.”
To learn more about becoming a DJS collaborator or funder, contact Benjamin Linder, professor of design and mechanical engineering and director of DJS, at blinder@olin.edu.