Our work unfolds at the intersection of race, gender and sexuality in the Deep South. Our approach honors the political actions of African American women that began in their collective resistance to capture, trafficking and enslavement. We use an integrated, multidisciplinary research approach that centers on collaboration to unveil indigenous analyses, organize data, and inspire new processes and theories of change.

 

How do we do it?

• Amplify the voices of those traditionally excluded from conversations about social, economic and political wellbeing as the experts on their own lives.
• Use their knowledge (and the knowledge of the communities they are part of) to reframe conversations about structural injustices, including criminalization, gender-based violence, and poverty.
• Craft new solutions and interventions in partnership with communities, and name the new processes and theories of change that are marshaled therein.

 

What ethics ground our approach to research?

We believe that researchers have an obligation to counter dangerous stereotypes in the literature. We also work proactively with communities to design new research models and questions that will address the real issues that hamper their health and wellbeing.

 

What are our core specialties?

• Intensive program evaluation for grassroots organizations working at the intersection of race, gender and sexuality in the Deep South
• Collaborative community-based research union, bringing together key organizations across the city of New Orleans to develop research questions that young and seasoned researchers alike may work with us to answer
• Community Based Participatory Research to examine key issues on gender-based violence, racism, criminalization and economic inequality in the Deep South
• Community-driven oral history and storytelling project and archive on social movement history in the Deep South
• Institute courses on history, research and community power made available for community self-education, university course credit, and professional CMUs