The Community–Based PhD – Complexities and Triumphs of Conducting CBPR

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) presents unique ethical and practical challenges, particularly for graduate students. This volume explores the nuanced experience of conducting CBPR as a PhD student. It explains the essential roles of developing trust and community relationships, the uncertainty in timing and direction of CBPR projects that give decision-making authority to communities, and the politics and ethical quandaries when deploying CBPR approaches—both for communities and for graduate students.

The Community-Based PhD brings together the experiences of PhD students from a range of disciplines discussing CBPR in the arts, humanities, social sciences, public health, and STEM fields. They write honestly about what worked, what didn’t, and what they learned. Essays address the impacts of extended research time frames, why specialized skill sets may be needed to develop community-driven research priorities, the value of effective relationship building with community partners, and how to understand and navigate inter- and intra-community politics.

This volume provides frameworks for approaching dilemmas that graduate student CBPR researchers face. They discuss their mistakes, document their successes, and also share painful failures and missteps, viewing them as valuable opportunities for learning and pushing the field forward. Several chapters are co-authored by community partners and provide insights from diverse community perspectives. The Community-Based PhD is essential reading for graduate students, scholars, and the faculty who mentor them in a way that truly crosses disciplinary boundaries.

Contributors: Anna S. Antoniou, Amy Argenal, Sonya Atalay, Stacey Michelle Chimimba Ault, Victoria Bochniak, Megan Butler, Elias Capello, Ashley Collier-Oxandale, Samantha Cornelius, Annie Danis, Earl Davis, John Doyle, Margaret J. Eggers, Cyndy Margarita García-Weyandt, R. Neil Greene, D. Kalani Heinz, Nicole Kaechele, Myra J. Lefthand, Emily Jean Leischner, Christopher B. Lowman, Geraldine Low-Sabado, Alexandra G. Martin, Christine Martin, Alexandra McCleary, Chelsea Meloche, Bonnie Newsom, Katherine L. Nichols, Claire Novotny, Nunanta (Iris Siwallace), Reidunn H. Nygård, Francesco Ripanti, Elena Sesma, Eric Simons, Cassie Lynn Smith, Tanupreet Suri, Emery Three Irons, Arianna Trott, Cecilia I. Vasquez, Kelly D. Wiltshire, Julie Woods, Sara L. Young
 

Sonya Atalay is a professor of anthropology at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has two decades of experience using community-based participatory methods to conduct research in partnership with Indigenous communities. She is the author of Community-Based Archaeology: Research with, by, and for Indigenous and Local Communities.

Alexandra McCleary is the tribal archaeologist for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Highland, California. She received her PhD from University of California, Berkeley, and her BA at Barnard College, Columbia University.