“’Dirty laundry’ & ‘false advertising’ – Negotiating knowledge mobilization in community-based research (CBR)”

Date: January 23, 2018
Time: 12-1:30pm
Room: HS 208
Speakers: Dr. Izumi Sakamoto (University of Toronto) & Dr. Ronald Pitner (University of South Carolina)

Abstract: In community-based (participatory) research (CBR) multiple stakeholders are involved in making key decisions. Negotiating the multiplicities of voices comes with great challenges (and joy!). In this presentation, we focus on the dilemmas that can emerge during knowledge mobilization. Since every “community” is unique, there is no “one-size fits all” approach, and research teams must find their own way, based on their values, terms of reference, and specific circumstances. In our experience however, we have found that re-visiting CBR principles and learning about real-life examples in dealing with such dilemmas can help. To that end, four themes (including “dirty laundry” and “false advertising”) will be explored using examples from our own CBR projects. During the presentation participants will be encouraged to share their own experiences of similar challenges and how they sought to address them

Speaker Bios:
Izumi Sakamoto, PhD, RSW is Associate Professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. With six grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as the Principal Investigator, Dr. Sakamoto’s research has focused on anti-oppression and social inclusion of immigrants as well as people who have experienced homelessness, using community-based (participatory) research, qualitative research, and arts-based research approaches. Her recent research projects problematized the notion of “Canadian experience” (CE) as it is often used as an exclusionary hiring criterion for skilled immigrants in Canada, who are often from the Global South countries. In one project, Dr. Sakamoto led a university-community coalition called, the Beyond ‘Canadian Experience’ Project (BCEP), which contributed to the development of the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Policy on removing the “Canadian experience” barrier, released in July 2013. These contributions led Dr. Sakamoto to receive 2014 Pioneers for Change Women in Leadership Award, given by Skills for Change in association with CIBC. Dr. Sakamoto’s current SSHRC project focuses on the art activism and organizing efforts by Japanese Canadians who are touched by the collective trauma of Interment during World War II (co-investigators & collaborators: Drs. Jane Ku, Matthew Chin, Eunjung Lee, Billie Allan, Jane Middelton-Moz). Dr. Sakamoto is an Academic Fellow of the Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research. A former Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Sakamoto received her MSW, MS and Ph.D. (Social Work & Psychology) from the University of Michigan and her BA and MA from Sophia University, Japan.

Ronald Pitner, PhD, ACSW is the Associate Dean for Curriculum, a Distinguished Associate Professor in Social Work Research, the Director of the I. DeQunicey Newman Institute for Peace and Social Justice, and the I. DeQuincey Newman Endowed Chair in Peace and Social Justice in the College of Social Work at the University of South Carolina. His research interests are focused on using social psychological, community, and developmental theories to examine social issues such as oppression, prejudice, poverty, and interpersonal forms of violence, as well as their various intersections. Dr. Pitner’s research and writings have mainly focused on the examination of contextual factors and how they influence children and adolescents’ evaluations of interpersonal forms of violence at school. Moreover, he has used this research to further explore school violence and school safety issues. His research has expanded to also examine the effects that youth and community-based civic engagement has on residents’ perceptions of community ownership, community safety, and positive youth and community development. Dr. Pitner earned his PhD in Social Work and Psychology from the University of Michigan.

“The bits on the cutting room floor: Erasures and denials within the qualitative research trajectory”

Date: February 12, 2018
Time: 12-1:30pm
Room: HS 208
Speaker: Dr. Leeat Granek, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Abstract: Forthcoming

“Voice Lessons: Dis/Articulating ‘voice’ and the value of unpacking concepts in qualitative inquiry”

Date: March 28, 2018
Time: 12-1:30pm
Room: HS 208
Speaker: Dr. Gail Teachman, Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill University

Abstract:
What makes a good interview and who is the ideal interview subject? How do normative understandings of ‘voice’ mediate research results and impact? Can researchers ‘give voice’ to participants?

Research that involves eliciting and analyzing participant accounts is often reliant on idealized conceptions of voice as the singular possession of an autonomous individual. This framing grants authority to some accounts while raising concerns about the authenticity of others. It also has the effect of privileging ‘voices’ produced through putatively ‘normal’ speech. In this presentation, I discuss these issues in the context of a study about inclusion with young people who have little or no speech. I share the unexpected challenges I encountered as I realized it was necessary to disarticulate, or disrupt, the logics underpinning conceptions of voice in qualitative inquiry. Drawing examples from the study and subsequent application in other areas, I demonstrate the value added through the critical dialogical methodology that resulted from this theorizing. In conclusion, I suggest the implications of this work for interview-based research generally, highlighting the dialogical relation that is all our communication.

“Perspectives from new arts-based scholars on methodological innovation”

Date: April 25, 2018
Time: 12-1:30pm
Room: HS 208
Speakers: 

Debra Kriger – Sculpting & Life Lining

Sculpting and life-lining (a particular kind of collage) are ways to achieve embodied, creative, imaginative and absurd ways of knowing. I used these malleable methods to understand how people make sense of the concept of ‘risk’ in health, and will present here on (a) their usefulness in researching complex ‘things’ and (b) the capacity of imagination as a tenet for critical qualitative health research. How does Dolly Parton relate to Jean-Paul Sartre? Come find out through this exploration of creating ‘things’ in critical qualitative health research.

Gerardo Betancourt – Hand Mapping

Advancing the work conducted by Gastaldo et al (2012) on “Body Mapping”, Hand Mapping takes the theoretical stance of visual participatory methodologies, and brings up a more defined mapping opportunity for voicing the narration of individuals life events, and life health trajectories. Hand Mapping uses the lines on the hand as a metaphor of a time line, and uses the fingers for analyzing five branches of topics (e.g., health issues, health literacy, lived experiences related to care). Hand Mapping constitutes an affordable qualitative methodology and an innovative way of investigating narratives’ visual representation, and KTE activities.

Clara Juando – Drawing as Methodology

In my research with young mothers living in the margins, I’ve used drawing and sketching as a way to connect with young people, to elicit their experiences, to soften the aggressiveness of doing research with vulnerable populations, and to open a third space in which re-imagining the future and re-creating the present and past is possible. But incorporating drawing in my research practice is what has changed my ability to analyze and co-construct knowledge. Join us in this session to hear how you can draw to ‘see what you can’t see’.