Engagement and Collaboration with Undocumented Communities: Lessons from the Undocumented Student Equity Project

• In Event: 1445 - Doing Social Justice Research in Latina/o/x Sociology

Abstract

The Undocumented Student Equity Project (USEP) first emerged from undocumented students who sought to advocate for better support services on their campus. Faculty, undocumented and allied undergraduate and graduate students, worked together to develop the project. Our mission in USEP is to identifying needs, resources, and best-practices that can be implemented at colleges and universities across California and the nation for undocumented students. Thus far the project has grown and continues to do so. Together the USEP team completed comprehensive policy reports, academic journal articles, amongst other things. However, in doing this work as a team we experienced a lot of setbacks, challenges, triumphs, and losses. In attempting to gain perspective on this, we reflected through conversation on what actions should be practiced to carrying out projects to support community efforts. We have four points on project methodology that we would like to present as important to doing effective and collaborative work with and for our communities. First, we can do more impactful research if you develop and plan the project intentionally to have positive changes for the community. Second, collaborations with the community can also extend into building your research team. This has benefits for both the research and the community members. Third, collaborations require reciprocity upon analysis of the data but we need to re-imagine and clarify what this means and what this can look like. Fourth, when doing scholar-activism there are also inherent tensions that will need to be addressed and negotiated. In all, this paper aims to engage in the conversation of how researchers and communities can collaborate together to work together on issues of social justice.

Author

• Martha Arhemi Morales Hernandez, University of California, Irvine