Designing Research for Social Justice: Writing a Community-Based Research Proposal

This course will support students in designing and writing a community-engaged research proposal. In contrast to "traditional" forms of research, community-engaged research uses a social justice lens in seeking to apply research to benefit communities most impacted. Community-engaged researchers also aim to challenge the power relationship between "researchers" and "researched" by working side by side with community partners in the design, conceptualization, and actualization of the research process. In this course, students will learn how to write a community-engaged research proposal. This involves forming a successful community partnership, generating meaningful research questions, and selecting means of collecting and analyzing data that best answer your research questions and support community partners. The course will also support students in developing a grounding in the theory and practice of community-engaged research, and to consider the ethical questions and challenges involved. By the end of the course, students should have a complete research proposal that can be used to apply for a number of summer funding opportunities including the Chappell Lougee Scholarship, the Community-Based Research Fellowship, Cardinal Quarter fellowships, and Major Grants. Please note that completion of the course does not guarantee funding-- rather, the course supports you in learning how to write a strong community-engaged research proposal that you can use to apply to any number of fellowships). This course is also useful for students in any academic year who are interested in pursuing community-engaged theses or capstone projects.