Designing for Empathy is a volume of twenty-three essays contributed by multidisciplinary experts, collectively exploring the state of empathy for its design elements that might lead to positive behavior change and a paradigm shift towards unifying, compassionate worldviews and actions. As museums are currently shaping their tools for fostering empathy as an intentional outcome of museum experiences, the idea of empathy-building is shaping them back as socially relevant institutions that increasingly value diversity, accessibility, and equality. This is a non-linear, multi-layered, and multi-dimensional transformation that requires multidisciplinary, cross-industries, and cross-sectors alliances for its sustainability. The potential of this collective transformation effort includes the invention of unconventional, evidence-based, and sustainable solutions that can be scaled up beyond the walls of traditional museums to all kinds of informal learning platforms to help eliminate the empathy-deficit in our world. Designing for Empathy expands our understanding of empathy and its potential for fostering compassionate worldviews and actions through a multidisciplinary exploration in three parts: "The Object of Our Empathy" explores how we define and perceive the "Other," "The Alchemy of Empathy" introduces thirteen design elements of empathy that might lead to transformative learning experiences, and "The Scope and the Spectrum of Empathy" highlights the importance of positioning empathy as a cross-industrial shared value for the benefit of people and the planet. Designing for Empathy will inspire and empower those who are interested in intentionally designing for empathy to cultivate compassionate worldviews and actions that celebrate and preserve the oneness of all people, the environment, and our planet.

About the Author
Elif M. Gokcigdem, Ph.D., is the founder of Empathy-Building Through Museums Initiative. She is an innovative thought leader, a historian of Islamic art, and a museums scholar who is committed to creating fertile grounds of empathy through informal learning platforms to inspire positive behavior change, caring mindsets, and compassionate worldviews that value all of humanity and the planet. Gokcigdem is the author of two visionary books on empathy-building: Fostering Empathy Through Museums (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), and Designing for Empathy: Perspectives on the Museum Experience (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). She is the chief curator and co-chair of the world's first museums and empathy summit titled: "Fostering Universal Ethics and Compassion Through Museums with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama," which took place in October-November, 2018 in Dharamsala, India.

Reviews
In our increasingly virtual world, museums have a unique ability to bring alive experiences, ideas, and emotions through real objects, places, and stories - and through these to identify with new people and experiences in powerful ways. Elif Gokcigdem has assembled an impressive and inspiring collection of thought pieces from a variety of perspectives, both from in and outside of the museum field, on how - and why - museums might proactively and intentionally design their experiences to foster greater empathy. -- Laura L. Lott, President & CEO, American Alliance of Museums



Book Information
ISBN 9781538118290
Author Elif M. Gokcigdem
Format Paperback
Page Count 466
Imprint American Alliance Of Museums
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 744g
Dimensions(mm) 232mm * 157mm * 29mm