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What does it mean to build justice into the very structures where we live, work, and gather? In this visionary keynote, Dr. Ruha Benjamin—Princeton professor and author of Race After Technology and Imagination: A Manifesto—invites architects, planners, and designers to examine how the built environment intersects with systems of inequality, surveillance, and technological bias. As today’s political landscape brings renewed attention to civil rights rollbacks, discriminatory zoning practices, and the racialized deployment of surveillance technologies in public space, Dr. Benjamin draws from her groundbreaking concept of the “New Jim Code” to expose how architecture and design can unwittingly replicate systemic harm. Yet she also offers an inspiring framework for reimagining design as a tool of resistance, care, and collective liberation.
About Dr. Ruha Benjamin
Dr. Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and the award-winning author of Race After Technology, Viral Justice, and Imagination: A Manifesto. Her work investigates the social dimensions of science, medicine, and technology with a focus on the relationship between innovation and inequity, knowledge and power, health and justice. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including Princeton’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, the 2023 Stowe Prize, and most recently, a 2024 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship.
Videos of Dr. Benjamin
Meet Ruha Benjamin | 2024 MacArthur Fellow
TED Women | Is technology our savior — or our slayer? (841K views)
What Now? with Trevor Noah Podcast (175K views)
The countdown is on for the 2025 NOMA Conference KC: FUTURE UNFOLDING, happening in Kansas City, October 8 – 12. This keynote promises to challenge assumptions, spark dialogue, and leave you thinking differently about the future of technology and society.
Join us for this unforgettable opening keynote on Thursday, October 9th, doors open at 3:15 PM. Can’t make it to Kansas City? Dr. Benjamin’s talk will also be streamed live, so no one has to miss out.
See you in Kansas City!
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