Banner image design: Alyssa Monte
DESIGN JUSTICE LABS
Cultivating Critical AI Literacies
Design Justice Labs publishes peer-reviewed open-access resources that help students to encounter new technologies from the stance of researchers rather than users. A web platform indebted to the Design Justice Network’s inspiring principles, the project’s goal is to enable teachers, students, and the public at large to judge for themselves when, if, and how the use of automated tools makes sense for their learning.
Until April 2, 2025, when it became one of several hundred grants that the Trump administration canceled without due process, DESIGN JUSTICE LABS was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), an agency that has now been severely downsized. The grant enabled the Critical AI Initiative @ Rutgers to develop the platform in collaboration with partners at the Australian National University and the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
DESIGN JUSTICE LABS is currently supported by internal funding including the Center for Cultural Analysis, the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, and the School of Arts and Sciences. In addition, in AY 2025-6, DESIGN JUSTICE LABS oversaw a PERC award to support undergraduate student research from the new RAD Collaboratory.
