Research in Relationship: Exploring the Promises and Complexities of Community-Engaged Ethnography
**This event is open to those of the Stanford community ONLY**
In this interactive talk, I reflect on the promises and complexities of conducting ethnographic research through a community-engaged approach. Community-engaged research is a collaborative process in which researchers work alongside community members to shape multiple aspects of a project, from developing research questions and designing protocols to analyzing data and sharing findings. At its core, this approach seeks to ensure that research does not remain within academia, but instead contributes meaningfully to the communities involved. I ground this discussion in my experience working on a three-year longitudinal study with a local college access program, where I participated as both scholar and practitioner. My dissertation examines how and why sacrifice becomes understood as necessary to making higher education possible among working-class Latinx immigrant families. Central to this work is the use of qualitative methods, including participant observation, interviews, and pláticas, alongside efforts to strengthen asset-based practices in college access settings. I highlight four central tenets of my project: 1) collaborative research design with educational stakeholders, 2) reciprocal exchange and vulnerability with participants, 3) translation of findings into practical applications, and 4) the dissemination of findings and practice outside of journal articles. I also share a brief dissertation excerpt on Latina daughters’ familial care and sacrifice to illustrate how community-engaged research, autoethnography, and sociological inquiry intersect in my work and reflect the nuances of being both an ethnographer and practitioner within an organizational setting.
