Laura Kozak is a design researcher, educator, and community organizer. Her work focuses on relational, place-based ethics, and asks how designers contribute to relationships with communities, land, water and ecological beings through decolonizing and anti-oppression practices.
Laura has taught across every level at Emily Carr, from the Summer Institute for Teens through to Graduate studios and supervision. An affiliate of the DESIS Lab, she has supervised numerous Research Assistants and served as a mentor to students in the Social Practice and Community Engagement program. In 2021 she was honoured to receive the Ian Wallace Award for Teaching Excellence and recognized by Sierra Club BC for Exceptional Leadership in Climate Action.
Her research is focused on climate justice, which integrates ethics of social justice and decolonization into climate action and sustainability work. In 2023, she co-led a Climate Justice Field School for senior sustainability planners and policy-makers at the City of Vancouver in collaboration with a renowned group of cultural and social justice practitioners. Currently, she is part of an interdisciplinary team (with Jean Chisholm and Marcia Higuchi) working with Robert Joe, Elder-in-Residence at kálax-ay (Capilano University) and Coast Salish Master Weaver Jess Silvey on a project called Mapping swiya, which draws on shíshálh ways of knowing to re-envision stories of time and place.
Laura has published and presented papers internationally at PDC2020 (Participatory Design Conference), PIVOT: A World of Many Centers, Cumulus, AICAD and ServDes. She is a past president of 221A Artist Run Centre Society and current Research Associate and Sessional Faculty at Emily Carr. Laura holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture from UBC and a BFA from Emily Carr.
