How Can Research Support Food Sovereignty? Lessons from the Hillside Foodways History Project

• In Event: 50658 - Whose Story and Whose Project?: Ethical Issues and Considerations in Research Collaborations

Abstract

The Hillside Foodways History Project is a community-based participatory research initiative involving Michigan State University, Colorado College, and Food to Power (FTP), a Black-woman-led food and racial justice organization in the historically Black Hillside neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Grounded in shared principles of strong relationships, collaborative decision-making, and community accountability, the project aims to understand and uplift the cultural foodways of Black residents in Hillside. We explore how residents navigate and resist structural conditions that have created an unequal food landscape over time.
Rather than reflecting on partnership dynamics after the fact, this paper offers an account of how ethical commitments unfold in practice during the research process. We highlight how mutually developed guiding principles act as the ethical infrastructure of the partnership, shaping decisions around research questions, data collection, and dissemination. Through interviews with community elders and collaborative data analysis with community researchers, the project frames knowledge co-creation not only as a method but as part of the broader infrastructure of food sovereignty—redefining whose knowledge counts and who benefits from its circulation. This case study contributes to ongoing conversations about how research can be leveraged in service of community self-determination and social transformation.

Authors

• Florencia Rojo, Michigan State University

• Cayce C. Hughes, Colorado College

• Isabella Nuñez, Food to Power

• Patience Kabwasa, Food to Power