Workshop: Using Photovoice for Community-Based Research and Action
Visions of Justice: Northern Uganda and Appalachia
Photovoice is a participatory action research method that asks community members to photograph their daily lives as a starting point for critical reflection on community conditions, local assets and the social and political realities that shape their quality of life. The method is increasingly used in communities facing socioeconomic exclusion as a way to make policy makers see opportunities for change.
John Harris, the President's Associate Professor of Regional and City Planning at the University of Oklahoma, and Lupe Davidson, Woodburn Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at WVU, have used the method for many years in several contexts. Drawing on their experiences, they will introduce the method’s background and evolution, provide a basic understanding of how to use it with communities and discuss practical challenges for community-based research and activism. This workshop is cosponsored by the Center for Resilient Communities and the Honors College.
This workshop is part of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences’ Visions of Justice series marking Sister Rosemary's visit to WVU in March 2020.
About John Harris
John Harris is President’s Associate Professor of Regional and City Planning and Co-Director of the Center for Peace and Development at the University of Oklahoma. His work reflects a commitment to partnering with communities to research and frame their own contexts through their own experiences and to bring their priorities to the policy making table. Trained as an urban planner, with a master’s and doctorate from Florida State University, Harris seeks to work across disciplines in ways that bring grassroots organizations and academics together to co-create pathways to transformative change. Prior to joining academia, he worked in several urban planning capacities and for a non-governmental organization working with communities to rebuild South Sudan after a protracted civil war. Currently, Harris primarily works in partnership with grassroots women’s organizations in northern Uganda through the Center for Peace and Development.