Newkirk Research Justice Shop Graduate Student Fellows
Chengyuan Huang
Doctoral Student
Drama Department
Veronica Valencia Gonzalez
Doctoral Student
Department of Social Ecology
COVID-19 Community Narratives Research Project: Fellows work with RJS co-directors to support the Californian COVID-19 Stories pilot study and develop a participatory action research element of the project in partnership with locally based community based organizations. Fellows outreach to potential study participants and potential partners, conduct interviews, collect archival data, organize and manage data, and analyze and share data via project website using the Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography. Fellows will also contribute to final products such as op-eds, policy briefs, and blog posts.
Marilyn Garcia
Doctoral Student
Sociology Department
Mulatwa Haile
Doctoral Student
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
Community-Based Organization Sustainability and Capacity Project: Building on a project which began in January 2019, Marilyn Garcia and Mulatwa Haile, the 2020-2021 fellow team, will be supporting a local community-based organization (CBO) to work on organizational capacity, specifically sustainability and succession planning. Fellows will participate in CBO Advisory Board meetings and work with staff, and Board members to support the organization. Activities include meeting documentation, evaluation, creation of board documents such as sustainability, fundraising, communication, strategic, and implementation plans, data management, and responses to research needs, policy analysis, and literature reviews. Fellows may also help in identifying grants and grant writing for the organization.
Connie Valencia
Doctoral Student
Department of Public Health
Ian Baran
Doctoral Student
Department of Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy
Community-campus collaborative for Community Air Monitoring Project: Fellows will support a local CBO in a 3-year state-funded project focused on community-based air monitoring. The CBO and multidisciplinary UCI researchers meet quarterly as a collaborative that the fellows will help to coordinate. Specific activities include: 1) processing and synthesizing documentation, 2) designing evaluation measures and implementation plans, 3) data management, 4) generating reports and communication materials for various audiences (community members, academics, and funders, specifically regular grant reports for the funder, 5) responding to rapid research requests for best practices, policy analysis, and 6) working with the CBO staff. Other tasks include facilitating CBO/ UCI Collaborative meetings specifically scheduling and attending meetings, creating and sharing agendas for upcoming collaborative meetings, participating and sharing meeting note-taking practice, summarizing notes into digestible and useful information, facilitating discussion among collaborative members as decided by the collaborative, and following up with members via one-on-one meetings.
Margaret Goldman
Doctoral Student
Department of Criminology, Law and Society
Ethan Rubin
Doctoral Student
Department of Education
Environmental Justice Water Quality Photovoice Project: Fellows will support process evaluation for a local Environmental Justice Organization’s PhotoVoice project. As part of the CBO’s Communities Organizing for Better Water campaign, Orange County residents will document water quality problems in their lives and in their communities. Fellows will observe PhotoVoice workshops, develop evaluation tools and metrics in conversation with the organization’s staff, and write a report summarizing the findings. Fellows will also support the development of training tools to codify the PhotoVoice method as it is used by the organization so that they can systematize and potentially replicate its implementation around Orange County.
David Banuelas
Doctoral Student
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Tim Schütz
Doctoral Student
Department of Anthropology
Community Science Organizing Case Study Project: Fellows will partner with a local Environmental Justice Organization to support the development of a Community Science Organizing model based on work that the organization has done on the topics of water and soil lead. Fellows will produce two case profiles of the two campaigns and make recommendations to the organization about how to develop a model and training modules to support community science as an Environmental Justice Organizing strategy. Fellows will develop the methodology and details of the deliverable with the organization in the fall quarter. Activities may include: writing a literature review, conducting interviews, focus groups, or archival research, writing a brief to share with the organization’s membership, and producing a proposal for funders for the development of a curriculum for a community science organizing model.
Research Justice Shop: 2020-2021 Newkirk Graduate Student Fellow Presentations
- RJS Fellows will present the results of their 2020-2021 collaborative research projects with their community partners:
- COVID-19 Community Narratives Research Project
- Community-Based Organization Sustainability and Capacity Project
- Community-campus collaborative for Community Air Monitoring Project
- Environmental Justice Water Quality Photovoice Project
- Community Science Organizing Case Study Project
- Graduate students who completed the Research Justice Workshop Series will be named and the certificates in Community-based Research will be emailed to the students.
2020-2021 RJS Fellows:
Ian Baran, Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy, School of Social Ecology
David Banuelas, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences
Marilyn Garcia, Sociology, School of Social Sciences
Margaret Goldman, Criminology, Law and Society, School of Social Ecology
Veronica Valencia Gonzalez, Social Ecology, School of Social Ecology
Mulatwa Haile, Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Medicine
Chengyuan Huang, Drama, School of Arts
Ethan Rubin, Education, School of Education
Tim Schütz, Anthropology, School of Social Sciences
Connie Valencia, Public Health, School of Health Sciences
Community Partners:
Madison Park Neighborhood – Getting Residents Engaged in Exercise and Nutrition (MPNA-GREEN)
Orange County Environmental Justice (OCEJ)
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