Ethnic Studies and Youth Participatory Action Research: Constructing Dual Subjectivity

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: Engaging Research Alongside Community, Family, and Students

Abstract

This paper explores an instance of the praxis of Ethnic Studies in a midsized city in the Midwestern United States with youth of African descent. The youth in this study worked to grapple with their own lived experiences by historicizing themselves within an intellectual tradition, and by becoming producers of knowledge using participatory action research. The paper outlines the context and curriculum of a program called the [Freedom Youth Scholars] FYS, and demonstrates outcomes of the intersection of Ethnic Studies and youth participatory action research (YPAR). The author argues that this intersection constructs a dual-subjectivity where youth of African descent are simultaneously subjects of their own curricular explorations and of their own research practices.

Author

• Brian Lozenski, Macalester College