RL-9: Co-Decolonizing Research Methods: Toward Research Sustaining Indigenous and “Other” Community-Engaged Ways of Knowing

Instructors:  

Lorri Many Rivers Johnson Santamaría, Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP); (course director) 

Cristina Corrine Santamaria Graff, Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis   

Fee: $35

For those interested or engaged in research produced by or serving Indigenous peoples or people of Color in the United States directly or indirectly impacted by colonization, this course provides a way forward toward authentic collaboration with stakeholders and interested parties. An interactive course, it features lecture, group work, and direct interactions with Mixteco/Indígena community members who are active researchers serving their community as part of an authentic collaboration with state and county funding partners. Latinx and Black/African American parents of children with dis/abilities in Indiana will also share university/community-based co-created research efforts serving their communities. The course aims to increase participants’ opportunities to co-plan, reenvision, and co-create collaborative research opportunities with community stakeholders and organizations representative of multilingual, migrant, Indigenous, Latinx, Black/African American, and dis/ability perspectives. Participants will leave the course able to 

(1) reframe notions of traditional research; 

(2) understand the importance of sacred space and “being” with communities pre-inquiry; 

(3) support communities’ identification of community-serving research needs, questions, and approaches; 

(4) co-create thought forms by sharing traditional research methods—allowing for adaptation, change, or innovation; and 

(5) facilitate community-engaged research methods and efforts. 

The ideal audience for this course includes graduate students, active researchers, and community members such as women and underrepresented minoritized people interested in shifting power differentials in collaborative research. There are no prerequisite skills or knowledge required. Potential assignments include three readings made available by email to registrants prior to the course.