ACAM320J: Asian Canadian Community Organizing is a studio course, co-developed and co-led by Dr. JP Catungal (Assistant Professor Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice; Co-Director Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement) and christina lee 李嘉明 (director of community capacity + strategic initiatives @ hua foundation).
Academic institutions have increasingly expressed growing interest in community-based learning initiatives, and a desire to engage with communities through less extractive research practices. However, students are not always adequately prepared for how to approach and build these equitable and reciprocal relationships with communities outside the university. In this course, with a balance between academic, community and practical knowledge, and through involve hands-on, project-based learning, students work through the following questions:
- How does community engaged research expand scholarly and public understandings of Asian Canadian politics, cultures, histories and communities?
- How do we ensure that practices of community engaged Asian Canadian studies research are ethical, equitable, reciprocal, and collaborative?
- How can meaningful research be grounded in, accountable to and meaningful for community?
Key Outcomes
The studio coursework is split into three stages:
- For the first stage of the course, students learn about core values and principles of community-based research, and work towards a collaboratively developed ‘community charter’ for engaging in equitable and reciprocal research practices.
- The second stage of the course is dedicated to implementation: putting into practice these values and principles, by working with community partners to co-design and undertake a small research project.
- The final stage of the course provides opportunities for learning about different styles and formats of knowledge mobilization and dissemination, and to showcase the outputs of their community-based research project.
View the full 2023W ACAM320J Syllabus here.
This website serves as a repository of student projects with the intention of supporting knowledge mobilization.