Publish or Perish versus Community Engagement and Activism

by | Sep 24, 2020 | Uncategorized

I found this unpublished gem today. Now that I am on the other side of tenure, I figured I would share some of my (previously unpublished) thoughts…   ****** I am in my third year on the tenure track as an assistant professor. I have had a fair number successes, a few failures, and some major obstacles. As I have highlighted elsewhere, I have been successful in the area of publishing my work–I have co-edited three books and written book chapters and journal articles. I have two books on the way and a slew of working papers. I am proud of all of it all. Yet, I am struggling to feel completely fulfilled. With my roots in activism, organizing, and community engagement, I long to be more deeply connected with my communities– be they my neighborhood, region, university, or identity group. I have tried to attend local meet-ups and meetings; I have presented a different community events. Yet, it is not enough. *****   For reference, I am now in my 5th...

Gratitude to the ‘The Folks of Flint’

by | Sep 18, 2019 | Uncategorized

I had the privilege of working on a project of Dan White’s, The Folks of Flint, in 2017. I was introduced to Dan through the Jan Worth-Nelson, the editor-in-chief of East Village Magazine. After wrapping up fieldwork for my book Power, Participation, and Protest in Flint, Michigan. I spent the next month interviewing Flint residents about their life stories and their relationship to the city. I recently learned of the passing of Norm Mercier, who I interviewed that summer. We sat on his porch for more than an hour talking about what Flint meant to him. Many of the stories I collected for the project have stuck with me, especially Norm’s. I am grateful for the time I spent with Norm. I am grateful to the people of Flint who welcomed me into their homes and trusted me to share their stories. I hope that in all of my work, whether short-form narratives or long-form book, I continue to uplift the stories and experiences of Flint residents and community members in meaningful and authentic...

[Personal] Reflection on Identifying as a “Critical Scholar”

by | Jan 30, 2019 | Uncategorized

Originally Prepared for: ARNOVA Conference, Austin, TX, November, 2018   My entrance into critical nonprofit and voluntary action studies was winding and non-linear. This reflection essay highlights my journey to identifying as a critical scholar, how I see this identify in relation to my identities as a scholar-activist and feminist, how critical perspectives have shaped my approach to both teaching and research. While it may be perceived as academic navel-gazing, the goal of this essay is to highlight that critical scholarship is not an exclusive club, but a broad umbrella under which a range of critical perspectives are valued. I was not trained in big “C” Critical Theory, but instead stumbled into it. My undergraduate degree was in psychology, and I minored in women and gender studies. My graduate degree was in public (and nonprofit) administration. With a few notable exceptions, my course work emphasized professionalism and a neo-managerialist approach to in public and nonprofit management, rather than public service and social equity (for a discussion of these two conflicting paradigms see Eikenberry & Kluver 2004; Denhardt and Denhardt, 2015; Rivera & Nickels, 2018). So I sought out course work in macro-social work, reading and discussing Freire (1970); I independently read and tried to find ways to apply feminist theory to my nonprofit (and public admin) coursework. For a long time, I did not know that there were scholars that merged these areas of research and practice under the broad mantle of critical nonprofit (and critical PA) studies. In fact, I was often conflicted in classes, frustrated that activist, organizing, and social movement voices/ theories were not represented in course syllabi....

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...

Empowered Participation: What Cities (including Flint) Can do to Foster Meaningful Participation

by | May 4, 2017 | Uncategorized

This post was originally published in FNU’s Our Community, Our Voice newspaper. It is reprinted here with permission.  To date, most of my work has focused on how local governments and states are becoming less participatory as a result of budget cuts and resource shortfalls.  These fiscal pressures are compounded by popular movements that call for “less government” or “smaller government” in favor of public-private partnerships and the contracting of the public services to private entities, often compromising (or eliminating) time-consuming deliberative and participatory processes. My research has examined how community members respond when their voices are silenced or discredited by local and state leaders. In Flint, this included the elimination of citizen advisory councils and local ombudsman’s offices (among other things) under municipal takeover. When confronted with disproportionate policy burdens (perceived or actual), these community members sought out alternative forms of engagement. They organized coalitions of activists and community residents. They led recall petitions. They organized demonstrations, protests, and actions at the local, state, and national levels. When pathways for participation were eliminated, community activists found alternative means of making their voices heard. Should this be necessary? This is outside the scope of this article. But the message is important: people want to be involved and there should be mechanisms for meaningful engagement. What then is the alternative to this scenario? What might a program that fosters participation and raises up the voices of residents look like? There is a lot written about participatory governance in both theoretical and practical terms. Here, I will focus on a one practical model, participatory budgeting, that may be relevant in Flint,...