Monthly series focuses on community-engaged scholarship and service by UCLA Ed&IS.
The UCLA School of Education & Information Studies presents “Learning Café,” a new monthly series of talks that spotlight community-engaged scholarship by SEIS faculty and graduate students. All events will be held at 12-1 p.m. on Tuesdays, in the Reading Room (3340) in Moore Hall.
SEIS Associate Dean for Public Engagement Annamarie Francois says that the series will provide a deep dive into groundbreaking community-engaged research and creative activity across the UCLA Department of Education and UCLA Department of Information Studies.
“SEIS has a long history of research for, by, and about the people and communities we serve,” says Francois. “The Learning Café offers opportunities for our students, staff, and faculty to learn about the methods, processes, and impact of community-engaged scholarship and to participate in conversations about how this work contributes to the public good.”
The series was launched on Oct. 22, with an event on “Community Archives and Participatory Action Research: Reports on the Virtual Belonging Project,” presented by Michelle Caswell, UCLA professor of information studies and special advisor to the UCLA EVCP on community engaged scholarship, and Anna Robinson-Sweet, UCLA doctoral candidate in the Department of Information Studies.
The Learning Café will continue on Nov. 5 with Jason Dorio, Ph.D., who will speak on community engagement opportunities for students in the Education and Social Transformation undergraduate program, with “Cultivating Community Engaged Praxis: Reflections on Undergraduate Community Engagement.” Dorio, who serves as associate director of undergraduate programs for community engagement in the UCLA Department of Education, will discuss promising practices and challenges of community engagement, and share ideas for future cultivation of community-engaged praxis.
The final event for the fall quarter will be presented on Dec. 3 by Nicole (Nikki) Barry, UCLA assistant professor of environmental justice education, who will discuss her work on “Community-Based Design Research in Educational Settings, an approach to research that prioritizes community goals, voices, desires, needs, and perspectives. This session will explore the importance of including community participation in the data analytic process, create a space to discuss data and analysis broadly, engage participants in hands-on analysis and interpretation, and share results from an ongoing CBDR project exploring how culture affects our thinking about ecosystems.
Upcoming Learning Café events through the winter quarter at SEIS will include Karen Hunter Quartz, director, UCLA Center for Community Schooling; Chris Jadallah, assistant professor of education; Thuy Vo Dang, assistant professor of information studies and co-director, UCLA Community Archives Lab; Melissa Villa-Nicholas, assistant professor of information studies; Cinthya Salazar, assistant professor of education; and Julissa Muñiz, assistant professor of education. Ananda Marin, vice chair of graduate education and associate professor of qualitative research methods in education, will kick off the spring quarter of Learning Café events.
To register for the Nov. 5 Learning Café event with Jason Dorio, click here.