Webinar: Decolonizing and racing research: Critical perspectives on research with racialized communities

Webinar Description: Research is a powerful act of knowledge creation that has significant real world impacts for communities in, for example, developing, implementing and transforming policies and in the distribution of resources. Complicit in colonial projects around the world, research also has problematic histories of harm, exploitation and theft within Indigenous and racialized communities. These histories and the colonial landscape of academia continue to situate researchers and academic institutions in a position to decide who is the “knower” in research and who is constructed as those to be known or knowable. Community-based research is an alternative approach to traditional forms of research that attempts to counteract the imbalance of power experienced by communities subject to marginalization and structural violence, including Indigenous and racialized peoples. Is community-based research enough of a counterbalance if the institutions in which research is conducted and the researchers conducting the research are consciously or unconsciously grounded in a colonial worldview? This webinar will offer ideas and considerations towards decolonizing approaches to research from a systems perspective. Dr. Hackett will draw from a decolonizing framework applied to social work established from her research with an African-Caribbean community situated in Tkaronto on the Indigenous lands of Turtle-Island, also known as the Greater Toronto area of Canada.

Speaker Bio:

Rhonda Hackett Dr. Hackett is an assistant professor at the University of Victoria. Her scholarship is focused on advancing an understanding of the lived experiences and knowledge of African Caribbean peoples living in the lands currently known as Canada, including matters of family and community wellbeing. An African and Caribbean social work scholar, Dr. Hackett’s work is informed by extensive social work practice experience and a decolonizing theoretical lens woven from the offerings of critical race theory, Black feminist thought, and Indigenous thought. Her publications can be found in the Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work and Intersectionalities: An International Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity and Practice.

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This webinar is the third in a three-part webinar and live discussion series hosted by Community-Based Research Canada exploring the topic of Community-Based Research with Racialized Communities.This series begins with a recognition that privilege exists at an intersectionality of factors such as gender, sexual orientation, income, and the social construction of race. Recognizing privilege is not enough, the next step is to listen and learn from the leadership of BIPOC communities. Speakers will showcase their experiences as community-based researchers working with racialized communities across Canada in a series of three webinars. A week following each webinar, CBR Canada invites the network to come together in a live discussion to dive deeper and explore how to integrate learnings into your own research projects or work.