Last month, the Center for Social & Behavioral Science (CSBS), College of Education, and Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) co-sponsored the third event in the Spring 2024 Community-Engaged Research Series, Addressing Inequity in Community-Engaged Research. Aimed to help community-engaged researchers incorporate principles of equity-minded practices in their work, the event attracted more than 80 researchers from over 50 units and 10 colleges and schools across campus. A video recording and presentation slides are available.
During this event, Ross Wantland, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, and Karen Simms, Trauma & Resilience Initiative, explored how inequalities and inequity can emerge in community-engaged research and the responsibility of researchers to address it. Key elements from the discussion include understanding equity in research, promising practices for addressing power inequity in research, applications for community-engaged research, and resources for work in this space.
Wantland explained that questions of equity in community-based work are centered around the research and the knowledge production from that research, stressing the importance of being attentive not only to people, but also the systems and structures around them. He further explained the responsibility of researchers to think beyond their individual ideals and intentions to structural impacts.
“We are all capable and responsible for the impact that we have on others,” Wantland said. “…so what are the ways that we can pay attention to that, even if we are not intending to harm?”
Simms stressed the value of incorporating an equitable framework in community-engaged work, including scaffolding supports, democratizing knowledge, healing-centered engagement, and justice-informed research.
“I know I am asking you to do three or four more steps that you maybe have not thought about, but it is essential to changing the power dynamic,” Simms said. “If we want to live in a world where everyone has the capacity to be, become, and belong, and we want to live in communities that are far more involved in the process, just make sure you do that.”
Simms shared that researchers doing equity-oriented work need a reinforcement network of support where they can celebrate, discuss strategies, and share resources to create synergy.
View the presentation slides to identify new strategies and support for addressing inequity in research.
The Community-Engaged Research Series aims to build and enhance the experience of community-engaged researchers across campus and provide them with the skills and resources needed to impact research in this space.
To wrap up the 2024 series, community-engaged researchers networked over coffee and doughnuts during the final series event on May 10. Another series is planned for the 2024-25 academic year to explore additional topics around community-engaged research.