Scholars have traditionally played roles such as those of the initiator, consultant, or collaborator in community-based research. Arguably, these roles often reify a hierarchy of knowledge, in which the scholar ultimately brings or leads production of legitimate, “official,” institutionalized knowledge to on-the-ground community concerns and campaigns. In this colloquium, we reflect upon and ask what other roles scholars might play in community-engaged research, especially that of the translator. What might research projects and collaborations that do not give the academic ultimate authorial power look like? What tensions must we grapple with in work aimed at valuing different modes of research, knowledge production, and presentation? How might scholars work to “translate” between different communities, audiences, and agendas in such work, without placing academic knowledge above local knowledge? In this Activist Scholar Special Session, we consider these questions in the face of profound trauma in the communities with whom we work, and in higher education. Amidst continued and pervasive police brutality, labor struggles, deportations, and violence against LGBTQ-identified persons, we also bear witness heightened hate speech and a retrenchment of resources in many universities.
Erika Grajeda, The Graduate Center, City University of New York Richa Nagar, University of Minnesota Celina Su, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
