IRDF - Examining activism and social engagement

trevor.kenney — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:15:17 +0000

Established by the Vice-President Research, the Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund (IRDF) is a one-time non-renewable research fund that will provide the foundation for developing the next generation of interdisciplinary concentrations of research excellence at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. The General Faculties Council Research Committee reviewed applications for IRDF funding and three proposals received support (up to $100,000 each over two years). This is one of three projects funded in 2012.

As Bob Dylan crooned in 1964, "The times they are a-changin'." While much has happened since Dylan first sang those famous words, they remain true today – the question on the minds of a group of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers is 'how are they a-changin'?'

Dr. Bruce MacKay, left, with Dr. Josephine Mills.

Funded by the U of L's new Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund (IRDF), Complex Social Change: teaching, performing, exhibiting, designing, mapping is a project that focuses on the issues around being engaged and affecting social change.

"We are a group of change-makers, investigating how change is made," says Dr. Josephine Mills, director of the U of L Art Gallery and principal investigator on this project. The other change-makers include Dr. Bruce MacKay (liberal education), Lisa Doolittle (theatre and drama), Dr. Tiffany Muller-Myrdahl (women and gender studies) and Emily Luce (new media).

"We are interested in the large issues around what constitutes effective action and whether young people today are engaged in social issues," explains Mills, who says the work was inspired by debates around the recent Occupy movement.

"The Occupy movement, no matter how disorganized they may appear to be, suggests that what may be lacking is the theory, knowledge and skills necessary to sustain active engagement against societal pressures that encourage passive acceptance," says Mills, who hopes to draw on the success of social movements that did work like the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), which revolutionized AIDS activism in the 90s.

"This project will explore connections between a liberal education and encouraging activism and social engagement," says Mills.

She notes that taking a multi-disciplinary approach allows for different ways of approaching the issue.

"People from different disciplines tackle problems differently," says Mills. "Ideas can be investigated through poetry, art and dance, and connections can be made in non-linear ways. That's what makes this interdisciplinary model so strong."

While still in the early stages, plans for the project include several public activities and activist events including: exhibitions, video screenings and public-site projects with the U of L Art Gallery; a community activist dance project; a web site and social media postings; high profile speakers; a local speaker's series; and a publication. These public events and projects will address specific social issues, will serve as case studies for the exploring larger concepts, and will ground the theoretical context in actual practice.

"Ultimately, we want this research to contribute to a contemporary definition of liberal education and to better understand what is involved with creating participation and engagement in activist actions in today's society," says Mills.

This story first appeared in the May issue of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

IRDF - Investigating the effectiveness of social programs

trevor.kenney — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:19:02 +0000

The title of their project might be long, but five ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are hoping their work leads to more concise ways in which disadvantaged groups, in particular women, can benefit from having input into, and influence over, social programs designed to assist them.

The research team, comprised of Dr. Carol Williams and Dr. Glenda Bonifacio of the department of Women and Gender Studies, Dr. Patrick Wilson of the Department of Anthropology, Dr. Bonnie Lee of the Faculty of Health Sciences (addictions counselling) and Linda Many Guns of the department of Native American Studies recently received nearly $100,000 from the U of L Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund (IRDF) to explore a project entitled Creative Appropriations: Identities, Communities, and Development in Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives.

Dr. Carol Williams, left, with Dr. Glenda Bonifacio.

Simply put, the researchers are looking at how their target groups have been constructed by the state, appropriate the policies and programs directed at them by government or social agencies and how their particular cultural and lived experiences challenge these constructions to demonstrate alternative models of civic engagement.

The project, suggests Lee, "may shed light on how government policies and non-government organizations (NGOs) can be better positioned to promote more inclusive and vibrant communities."

"This multi-faceted research project will allow us to better understand the possible implications of state and NGO programs for minority populations, and may help us to question the cultural and ideological impulses driving the design of certain projects," says Williams.

Wilson notes the results may, "allow us to see the ways in which minority women, in this case, navigate sometimes hostile policy environments and therefore our results may allow for better design and planning of those policies and programs themselves. Better yet, it may encourage a shift in the control of a project's design and implementation back to local communities and stakeholders."

The local communities and stakeholders aren't just from one particular group. The researchers will be talking with indigenous women involved in food sovereignty projects in Ecuador, women and women's organizations in First Nations communities in Canada and the United States and racialized immigrant women in Canada.

Very little comparative scholarship on the circumstances of racialized immigrant and indigenous women currently exists.

Through a combination of research methods, they hope to gain a clearer picture of some of the challenges or barriers women face in developing cultural or other programming, how they worked creatively to overcome them and how they engaged in 'creative appropriation' to make projects work better.

"An agency might give a group funds, or design a social program for one specific purpose," says Williams.

The group, in turn, might use the money for that stated purpose, or creatively expand the bounds of the agency's funding or program parameters. Williams says that sometimes those groups who work creatively to help their constituents can find themselves 'de-funded' if they stray too far from the stated plan set out by the group or governing organization overseeing the project.

"We are hoping to collect information which can contribute to a new way of policy-making for organizations that allows for, as we're calling it, the 'creative appropriation' of a program design or funding process to make it their own, and possibly more effective."

This story first appeared in the May issue of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - General Faculties Council Research Committee

IRDF - Examining activism and social engagement

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IRDF - Investigating the effectiveness of social programs

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