“. . . the classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress.”
Critical Participatory and Action Research
This doctoral course is designed to introduce students to critical participatory and action research (PAR) as a form of transformative social change. Situating PAR's historical roots in the Global South, we will examine PAR assumptions, methods, and praxis from feminist, liberatory, decolonial, scholar activist, and anti-racist theoretical frames. Simultaneously, we will look at social justice struggles, movements, and how those have created new ways of thinking about and democratizing knowledge production. This course will I introduce various resources for PAR that include new media, storytelling, and creative arts-based approaches along with ethnographic and narrative approaches. There will be a particular focus on community-engaged PAR, that is developed and carried out alongside/in solidarity with communities at the frontlines of struggles for justice, rights, and dignity.
Everyday Peace: Community-based Approaches to Peace and Peacebuilding
This graduate course introduces students to a range of issues in community-based approaches to everyday conflict and peacebuilding. Premised on the idea that peace cannot be understood or studied in isolation of other social processes, the course will allow students to collectively engage with key conceptual and methodological issues in peacebuilding. Drawing from community-based and critical perspectives in the social sciences, we will build on the notion of 'everyday peace', that is, building community capacities and promoting social justice as an antidote to the normalized and endemic violence in society. The course is framed by participatory action research approaches.
Advanced Community Dynamics
How do we do community-based research and action that critically engages and tries to address various forms of inequality and oppression? How do we do so through meaningful and sustained engagement with communities? What does it mean to work “alongside” communities as co-researchers and co-learners? These are some of the big questions that we will explore in this graduate level course. The course will build upon the foundations of community psychology to focus on the dynamics of inequality and oppression on one hand and social justice on the other. In particular, course materials will center the perspectives, experiences, and analysis of historically underrepresented and marginalized groups in conceptualizing social change.
Qualitative Research Methods
This graduate course introduces students to qualitative research in psychology and allied social sciences. Qualitative research aims to understand complex human problems in their natural settings. Its multi-method focus is geared towards building a nuanced understanding of structures, processes, and perspectives that shape both human behavior and social processes. We will survey the following broad areas in qualitative research: history and development; major approaches (e.g., narrative research, ethnography, action research); data collection strategies (e.g., interviewing, focus groups, participant observation, visual methods); analytic approaches and quality criteria; and ethical and representational issues. Particular emphasis will be on using qualitative research as a vehicle for promoting social justice and social change.
Introduction to Community Social Psychology
This course introduces history and contemporary trends of community social psychology with a focus on how social and environmental forces affect individual and group quality of life. It surveys the history, theoretical frameworks, core values, methods/approaches and orienting concepts in the field. In this class, we will approach community social psychology from a critical, feminist and decolonial tradition—as a framework for working alongside marginalized and historically underrepresented groups. A core principle of community social psychology is the centrality of context: context as history, politics, culture, relationality, place, space, and time. Praxis—mutually informing theory and practice to produce knowledge for transformative social change—is another core principle. The course is necessarily oriented to compelling social and human issues of our times. Crucially, in this course, we do not approach “community” as an object of inquiry. Through readings and dialogue, we will disrupt the (colonial) disciplinary gaze from community as object-of-inquiry, committing instead to lived struggles of those at the frontlines of injustice—focusing on mutuality, solidarity, relationality, and ethics of care.
Community Psychology (Undergraduate)
This course surveys the field of community psychology, including principles of social justice, diversity, and social change. We will review historical antecedents, paradigms, conceptual models, strategies and tactics of social and community change and action; examples from selected contexts and social systems (e.g., education, mental health, community organizations, the workplace, health care, justice system, and social services) will be employed. This course has a critical community psychology focus. In solidarity and close partnership with groups—oppressed through violence, exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, or cultural imperialism—critical community psychology seeks to draw attention to the socially divisive and ecologically destructive broader patterns and structures—such as capitalism, neoliberal globalization, patriarchy, colonialism, hegemony, and racism—that condition the scope of social problems and engage in collective action to dismantle oppressive social arrangements.
Preventing Youth Violence in our Communities (Undergraduate Seminar)
Youth violence continues to be a major public health concern in the United States. Preventing youth violence is an important component of creating peaceful and safe neighborhoods and fair and just communities. In this upper level undergraduate course, we will use ecological perspectives to understand the different types of youth violence, the contexts in which they occur, and intervention strategies to address the violence. Topics will include: violence in schools, gang violence, electronic media aggression, human rights, and structural violence. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the current state of youth violence, special considerations in researching youth violence, evaluating current programs and practices, and envisioning future directions for policy and research.
Culture and Psychology (Undergraduate)
This upper level undergraduate course provides an analysis of the impact of culture, socio-historical, and social influences on psychological processes and outcomes. Students will also learn about techniques for studying the influence of culture including cross-cultural methods and population-specific methods. Through careful analysis of research literature, this class will examine a variety of contexts within the U.S. and internationally. Topics will include identity development, immigration, acculturation, socialization, and social interactions among groups. The course is informed by critical race theory, postcolonial theories, critical indigenous theories, and intersectional theories.