Over the course of six weeks in May and June, Penn State Center Philadelphia partnered with academic experts and community leaders on a series of virtual conversations discussing the importance of engaged research.
Each week touched on a different topic but also sustained an extended dialogue about the importance of trust, power dynamics, ethics, and accountability in research. Frequently revisited topics included recent challenges to education, democracy, human rights, and innovation.
“This speaker series was an incredible opportunity for us to bring together voices of deep experience to acknowledge and address historic, systemic prejudices within the world of academic research,” said Kristen Goessling, director of participatory research at Penn State Center Philadelphia. “Participants in the series walked away with new perspectives on and techniques for creating sustainable, empathic, and impactful community research.”
Weekly Speaker Series Topics
Week 1: Transformative Approaches to University-Community Partnerships
Dr. Kristen Goessling and Carly Pourzand of the Penn State Center Philadelphia explored using the Center’s participatory action research approach to address systemic inequities and drive real-world change, bringing their model to life through stories from place-based work.
Week 2: Launch of the Penn State Center Philadelphia Digital People’s Participatory Research and Engagement Hub
Kamil Gerónimo-López and Kristen Goessling led an interactive working session to explore ideas around the Center’s new digital hub—a platform for participatory research, resource sharing, and collective learning for educators, researchers, facilitators, and movement builders.
Week 3: Infusing Language Justice into Research and Practice with Multilingual Communities
Presenters Ewa Protasiuk and Carly Pourzand explored how language justice can make research and practice more inclusive, equitable, and accessible to multilingual communities. This session further offered easily applicable strategies for integrating language justice into participatory frameworks.
Week 4: The Importance of Unlearning White Supremacy in Effective Community-Based Research
Led by pep marie and Fawn Walker Montgomery, this session examined how white supremacy still shows up in modern research spaces—and how both researchers and communities can unlearn these patterns to foster healing and liberation, especially for Black and marginalized communities.
Week 5: Overcoming Legacies of Harm and Mistrust in University-Community Research Partnerships in Times of Crises
Grounded in feminist and Indigenous perspectives, this session, led by Stephanie Skourtes, explored how legacies of colonialism and mistrust continue to impact university–community research, while reflecting on how research can serve as resistance and empowerment in times of crisis.
Week 6: Participatory Action Research and Accountability for Overcoming Tokenization Tendencies in Research
Fawn Walker Montgomery and pep marie once again led the conversation, this time challenging researchers and organizers to confront tokenizing research practices. The group explored participatory action research and how it can deepen accountability, build healing-centered relationships, and support transformational social change.
Bookmark our events page and check back for announcements of future learning opportunities.