For the next two summers, it will involve local university professors in new community-based research techniques and skills. This will help them to develop new research courses and revise existing ones to facilitate community involvement in the research process.
"When the community participates, researchers know what questions to ask, the subjects have an investment in the work, and the results have a better chance of being representative, meaningful and useful," says Alaka Wali, director of The Field Museum's Center for Cultural Understanding and Change, which is creating the Institute. "We want to make participatory research more valuable and demonstrate to communities that such research, in and of itself, is worthwhile."
To set the stage for the summer Institute, CCUC will convene in April a national two-day meeting of public and university museums that are engaged in issues surrounding race, racism and identity. The meeting will shed light on how museums could facilitate interaction between communities and universities on critical social issues. All this is made possible by a $340,000 Ford Foundation grant awarded in late January.
"The foundation's longstanding commitment to diversity and excellence in university teaching and research will be strengthened through this partnership of the Field Museum, universities and local communities," said Gertrude Fraser, program officer at the Ford Foundation. "It recognizes that the community is a site of knowledge that should be valued and integrated into university-based teaching and learning."
Opened in 1995, CCUC works to increase understanding of the connections between all people and promote solutions to urban social problems. It collaborates with more than 50 community organizations and cultural institutions. In 1998, CCUC began an Urban Research program that uses participatory research to better understand how race, class, gender, ethnicity and identity shape the social, economic and political realities in local communities. Some 60 students, including 40 research interns, have participated.
Interns have been involved in mapping the community assets of the Calumet region on Chicago's Southeast Side. They identified community events and activities as well as social institutions and relationships that could be used for environmental activism and conservation, stewardship, and revitalization efforts.
The new Institute will build on CCUC's contacts and know-how. The ten university professors who will participate in the Institute each summer will work with CCUC's community-based partners and supervise Urban Research interns.
"Faculty members at many universities could benefit from this kind of opportunity, especially those who are new to Chicago," says Mary Weismantel, professor of anthropology and Latin American studies at Northwestern University. "For example, they might have done research with the Mexican-American community in California, but that community is different here. Furthermore, the researchers might not have any contacts here. The Institute will serve as a bridge."
It's unusual for a museum to engage universities about research methods, but The Field Museum's Center for Cultural Understanding and Change has years of experience with community-based research, says Rebecca Severson, Urban Programs manager at the museum. "By reaching out to faculty, we can impact more students and increase the opportunities for communication and engagement between universities and communities.
"Civic activists and community-based organizations will help direct the dialogue," she adds. "This will stimulate universities to create more and better field-based research opportunities that incorporate diverse community voices."
The Institute will target high-level college courses in gender, African-American and Latino studies, as well as other social sciences. To begin with, it will focus on housing issues, including displacement, gentrification, and the shrinking supplies of public and affordable housing. It will also examine what it means to be an American and what is the meaning of "community."
"Communities used to be neighborhood-based, but now they are forming across neighborhood boundaries," Wali explains. "Just how do they form, and how do they hold together?"
An important goal of the program is to help retain women students, students of color, and students from diverse social and economic backgrounds. "Universities place a lot of importance on recruiting such students but not enough on keeping them," Wali says. "Our program will encourage such students to become scholars, go on to grad school, or otherwise engage themselves in collaborative research."
Curriculum transformation is a long-term process that requires sustained commitment, Wali concludes. "We hope to create a viable model that the Ford Foundation can use to stimulate change at the national level."
For more information, visit the Ford Foundation's website at www.fordfound.org and CCUC's website at http://www.fmnh.org/research_collections/ccuc/urban.htm.