Anti-Oppression Research
Equitable improvements require research and practice-based learning that are grounded in the principles of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, truth & reconciliation, and accessibility. This type of research privileges the rights and well-being of research respondents and commits to upholding the dignity of the participants, individually and collectively (Clark-Kazak, 2017). All anti-oppressive research is relationship work and the responsibility of witnessing includes a responsibility to collective care.
Research Interests
Forced migration issues, refugee agency & autonomy, root causes of displacement, gender equity, gender+-based analysis, leadership, followership, relational accountability, migration, borders, decision making, refugee regime, global governance, nonprofit governance, praxis, narratives, systems change and complex adaptive systems.
Approaches
Qualitative research applying:
- narrative inquiry
- collaborative inquiry
- participatory action research
- community-based research
- researching “up” to dominant narratives and power structures
- knowledge co-production
- process- and outcome-orientation: the process itself can contribute to advancing change
Asking the right questions is generative, but action is paramount. As a former executive director, I understand the varied needs and audiences for research, and design projects in a way that accepts multiple, even conflicting, needs.
Centring the needs & voices of those with lived experience of the issue at hand – at all stages in the process where possible (from development of research questions all the way through to analysis and sharing the results) – is key, while also acknowledging that shared experiences do not equal shared interpretations of those experiences. This is where qualitative research shines! Change can be seen through the process itself, not from one final narrative.
Participatory. Multistakeholder. Co-creative. Solutions-Oriented.
Methods include, but are not limited to, story catching, focus groups, interviews, surveys, shared meaning making dialogues.
Custom Research
1. Fill out the contact form (link) to schedule a 1/2 hr Discovery Call (no charge)
2. A draft Project Plan will be prepared within 1 week of the call (no charge)
3. When the draft is finalised (mutually agreed upon with clear goals & project outcomes), an Agreement and Fee Schedule will be prepared.
4. Project begins according to the agreed upon timeline!
Recent Projects
- Co-investigator – Community-wide anti-racism study, collecting base-line data on levels of racism in order to measure future impacts of anti-racism interventions
- Contributor – Impact Evaluation & Learning Framework, Canadian Refugee Sponsorship Association
- Principal Investigator – Shifting the Migration Narrative: Journey Mapping Refugee Agency & Autonomy
Abstract – Shifting the Migration Narrative: Journey Mapping Refugee Agency & Autonomy
The refugee regime rests on a notion of forced migration. Refugees are considered justified in migration only insofar as “they had no choice”. This framing removes agency and autonomy from those seeking refuge and carries an assumption of powerlessness. States and other non-refugee actors are seen to exclusively hold power vis-à-vis those displaced within this dominant narrative centred on state control of migration and “refugee crises”. This paper contributes to a shift to a strengths-based, human-centred explicative. As the principle nothing about us without us at last begins to permeate the refugee regime, refugee leadership, formal and informal, has entered the body of literature. Investigation of self-leadership- as autonomy could be defined- within the broader refugee ecosystem, is a gap in the literature. This paper explores implications of acknowledging agency versus the notion of absence-of-choice, what role UNHCR autonomy, or lack thereof, plays, and how these decision points intersect with State sovereignty. Through narrative inquiry and journey mapping, this qualitative research employs Integral Theory to frame the analysis of variables, both internal and external, individual and collective, that contribute to autonomy, accounting for the significance of family- , cultural- and gender-dynamics in decision making.
Tags: Refugees, Migration, Autonomy, Agency, Borders, Decision Making, Refugee Regime, Global Governance, Praxis, Narratives
Research Advisory Roles
- Centre for Community Based Research – Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program evaluation, 2022-23
- Environics Institute – Canadian Syrian Refugee Lived Experience Project, 2019
- University of Victoria – Building Capacity for Promoting Refugee and Newcomer Health: A Community Engagement Project
Suggested reading:
Brown, L. A., & Strega, S. (2015). Research as resistance : revisiting critical, indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches (Second). Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Reference:
Clark-Kazak, C. (2017). Ethical Considerations: Research with People in Situations of Forced Migration. Refuge, 33(2), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.7202/1043059ar
