UC offers summer program on social justice

By: John(na) Jackson

The Kunz Center for Social Research in the University of Cincinnati's Department of Sociology is hosting a summer research program from June 3 to 7 at the Uptown UC main campus.

The program, called "Research for Change in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo," is open to all UC undergraduate students of any major.

"This is a great place to learn more for students who are interested in research and how it can be used for social change but don't really know where to start or which courses to take," said Erynn Casanova, professor of sociology and director of the Kunz Center for Social Research in UC's McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

The program was developed to leave students with an understanding of how to conduct ethical, well-designed research, Casanova said.

The program will discuss how to conduct research for and with communities rather than on or around them. Participants will attend five days of hands-on training in topics related to social science: research ethics, visual representation of data, photo elicitation and sampling hard-to-reach populations.

Workshops are led by UC sociology faculty, faculty affiliates and graduate students, providing real-world teaching experience to grad students focused on community education. Attending students will earn certificates of completion as well as in human-subjects research training.

The research program is open to all students, regardless their academic focus, but it is an especially useful opportunity for those pursuing social sciences, she said.

“Anyone who is intrigued by social science research, whether they have experience doing research or not," she said. "Anyone who wonders how research can be used to improve the communities they live and work in. Anyone who has participated in activism and wants to document the issues they are passionate about.”