Engaging Students in Community-Based Feminist Action Research
- Ann Oberhauser (Iowa State University)
Abstract
This panel will highlight student projects in a Women’s and Gender Studies course that involves original research about issues relating to social justice and food security. The critical and timely topic of food security will address how it impacts people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, disability rights, and socio-economic class within local and global contexts. The panel of students will talk about steps they took to design their research projects as part of this course on feminist research in action. They will discuss how to develop research questions and identify methods that draw from feminist and queer studies. Graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in the WGS class will examine multiple facets of food justice across diverse groups and in relation to agriculture, commercial food outlets, and food workers. The goal of these projects is to disrupt hegemonic power relations and engage students and the community in social justice issues. This student-led conversation will involve critical and thoughtful input on praxis, or the intersection of theory and practice, as an integral dimension of feminist activist research. In sum, the discussion is intended to offer ways to include social justice in academic research on critical issues such as food security.