Three co-edited books!

by | Apr 24, 2018 | Research

This last year has been a whirlwind. I am wrapping up my second year on the tenure-track with some successes and some failures. For today, I am focusing on the successes! Between May 2017 and April 2018, I published three co-edited books. Each of the books is very different. Two are academic books and the other a collection of essays, poetry, and personal narratives. Two of the books focus on urban and community-based issues and the other on feminist approaches to teaching and learning. All of the books, to some extent, focus on power and oppression. And, all three of the books explore the ways in which individuals and organizations navigate and/ or respond to structures of inequality, paying close attention to strategies for creating social change. All of the books are available for purchase: Feminist Pedagogy, Practice, and Activism: Routledge or Amazon Grand Rapids Grassroots: Belt, SchulerBooks (support a local book store!), or Amazon Community Development and Public Administration Theory:...

Fieldwork and Parenting

by | Aug 1, 2017 | Community engagement, Research, Women in Academia

I am a parent. I am also a qualitative researcher, whose work often requires time in the field. In my last blog post I talked a bit about the challenges of avoiding “parachute research.” In that post I discussed the importance of continual reflexivity–the process of self-reflection wherein I am constantly checking my own power and privileged as the researcher and how my “position” might influence not only my analyses, but the people with whom I interact.  It requires that I adapt my research to the needs and interests of the people with whom I am working, continually reflecting on my role in the community. Avoiding parachute research, also requires being present. Working with communities, building relationships with people, and gaining a sense of “life on the ground” requires fieldwork. Yet, doing fieldwork as a parent is complicated. Some scholars have the ability to spend a year doing field work, others a few months. What do you do when your time is dictated, in part, by your role as a parent? I can’t leave for a year. For one, my kids are school-aged. Second, I have a job that requires me to be present. So, I typically carve out  3-6 week periods during the summer months to “live” in the community. I rent rooms from local residents, stay at local B&Bs, and attend an array of events, meetings, and get-togethers. I schedule my interviews during this time, too. So, as I am trying to be continually reflexive, I am also thinking about my role as a parent: “I wonder how the kids are doing?” or “I can’t wait to see my kids.” Thus, my identity and role...

Parachute Researchers

by | Jun 2, 2017 | Civic and Political Participation (Urban Democracy), Research

[edited April 2018] Another story came out recently about a possible water scam in Flint. Through my various connections, I have heard of several stories of opportunistic charities popping up, fly-in activists, and many parachute researchers. These are outsiders who come in and seek to benefit from the challenges facing the Flint community. Let’s be clear, I too am an outsider who has benefited (professionally) from my work in Flint. I am not a Flint resident. I have never lived in Flint nor have I ever worked for a Flint-based organization. I am not even from Flint’s surrounding area—but I am from Michigan (does that count?). Am I a parachute researcher? I try not to be… The term “parachute researcher” refers to scientists, inclusive of social scientists, that descend on a local community (which is not their own) to collect specimens, data, or interviews; quickly leaving to conduct their analysis elsewhere. It is often associated with researchers from wealthy countries swooping in to poorer countries uninvited, but it can be applied to people like me, as well: a privileged white academic, interested in understanding the lived experiences of a majority minority city. So, what to do? According to Cordner et al. (2012), we as scholars should seek “continual reflexivity concerning relationships between researchers and participants.” Reflexivity is about understanding my position-my role- as a researcher in relation to the community. I am an outsider. I am a researcher. I am a scholar-activist with a research interest in how communities’ respond to public policies. I myself have a history of community and feminist activism. Does this make me immune to...