August Post

Has your involvement in community-based research impacted your motivation to engage in community issues, research or service?

My involvement this summer in a community-based research project has certainly increased my interest in the issue I have been studying, and has also prompted me to see the act of research as an obligation rather than just an intellectual folly. This sense of responsibility I feel for my research means also that it does not end here with this final blog post or with my SURF final packet. I intend to continue following up on the results I have come to this summer throughout the year until something comes of them one way or another. In this way, the community-based element of the issue has really grounded the research I have been doing and not let me forget the ultimate goal.

On the other hand, the community-based element of the research process--that is to say the interviews and meetings, did not go as well as I planned. I did not know it at the time, but this neighborhood has been what someone might call "over-interviewed," which one resident finally told me months into the project. As I think I already blogged about, she advised me to go to the planning department to read the reports that had "already been written." In this way, I think I would have done better to begin with more scholarly research before beginning my interviews. Also, as much as we must be careful not to under-privilege community knowledge, we also should not over-privilege it. I was expecting the interviews to bring more discoveries and more clarity than they actually did. It was not until I began looking at the Orange County GIS land records that I really got a full sense of the phenomenon.

What assistance will be most helpful to you in the fall semester in wrapping up your CBR project?

I can not think of any specific assistance I need from the APPLES office in wrapping up my project. What I will most need is help from the Jackson Center for Saving and Making History at St. Joseph Church as well as the student organization UNC-NOW (United With the Northside Community NOW), both of which will hopefully be able to take on more permanent roles in the research process as I step back and reduce my own role. The Jackson Center will be integral in making sure that the map of Northside properties is kept up and added on to with stories and pictures of the properties as they change. Hopefully the Jackson Scholars, youth from the community who intern at the Jackson Center, will be able to fill this role. UNC NOW will serve a more political purpose, as the group will hopefully take the findings from the research and take appropriate political action (ie: meeting with town officials to propose and even demand that certain policies be implemented with regard to the Northside.

Please share recommendations you would have for future Fellows knowing what you know now

I would recommend that future fellows that they have good sense of the background of the research BEFORE beginning. This may come from a class, from scholarly articles, from speaking with professors, etc. The should also be familiar with RESEARCH METHODS. This is what I feel I was most lacking, and I think the CRB program would benefit from hosting several classes on research methods and interview techniques.