This course provides a foundation for addressing environmental and food justice through community-based participatory research (CBPR). Students will develop competencies to prepare them to work with communities to identify and understand environmental, food security, health, and social conditions that impact their communities and organizations. We will be drawing on theoretical and practical approaches from across the environmental social sciences (ESS) including psychology, anthropology, sociology, community health, and geography to help us frame ways of looking at critical community issues. Specifically, we will discuss a wide range of mixed methods with an emphasis on participatory approaches to developing research questions and hypotheses, community-engaged evaluation planning, needs assessments, and landscape scans. Students will also learn about ethical issues in research, particularly as pertaining to working with community stakeholders. Over the course of the semester, students complete a variety of practical exercises designed to gain experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis, and community learning. |