Course Description

This course surveys the important tradition of Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Latin America as a tool for producing knowledge in solidarity with grassroots communities. We start with examination of vivencias (process studies) from regions of Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico to situate research in the context of community organizing. We’ll also explore techniques ranging from critical recovery of history to engaging experiential knowledge or using relevant mediums to produce and diffuse the results, among others. The aim is to consider how PAR might inform our own research agendas and practices, going beyond formal academic institutional boundaries.  By the end of the term, students will be able to develop their own proposal for short, medium-, or long-term research projects based on PAR principles and methods.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

1. Compare and contrast different principles, aims, methods and outcomes of PAR throughout the region across a variety of contexts and towards different ends.
2. Evaluate the contributions of knowledge production around complex issues to relevant disciplinary understanding as well as grassroots communities for transforming structures of inequality.
3. Apply different tools pioneered by PAR facilitators to consider practical implications - along with possible sources of tension, dilemmas, or limitations, for community engagement inside and outside of institutions.
4. Develop a proposal for a PAR-inspired research project that outlines critical points of evaluation and reflection to orient future work, in any area of interest or towards a goal most relevant to your own professional, civic, or personal life.