she/her/hers – Kendell is a human rights practitioner and educator specializing in inclusive design methodologies, social justice, and community engagement. Her design work is dignity driven—rooted in human and ecological dignity, needs, and rights. Her praxis aims to be community-centered with a focus on active practitioner engagement, and an orientation towards process. Her research interests include building strategies of credibility and trustworthiness within human rights education, anti-racism, reproductive justice, and housing inequity.
Kendell’s training in dance (ballet, modern, and jazz) and choreography has forged a transformative viewpoint on the relationship between human dignity and the arts. In addition to dance, Kendell has traveled across the U.S. to study human rights topics such as the Civil Rights Movement, criminal justice & capital punishment, and Indigenous Rights. She has studied the lasting legacy of the Holocaust, and gender & sexuality across Europe. She is also a Senior Fellow with Humanity in Action (Copenhagen Fellowship).
Kendell is currently pursuing a MDes in Integrative Design from the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. She holds a BA in Human Rights and a BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University.
Talk to Kendell about design research, the power of performing arts, gender and sexuality, community engagement, and rest & leisure as a human right.