Below is a short list of individual researchers and organizations that practice community driven research and that use a Research Justice approach to their work.
Organizations
Research, Action, Design
Research Action Design (RAD) uses community-led research, transformative media organizing, technology development, and collaborative design to build the power of grassroots social movements. RAD is a worker-owned collective. Their projects are grounded in the needs and leadership of communities in the struggle for justice and liberation.
Website:http://www.rad.cat
Email: info[at]rad[dot]cat
Phone: 805-807-5358
University of California Los Angeles Labor Center
Re:Work Institute for Worker Justice
Re:Work conducts applied, community-led, and policy research. Re:Work works with community partners and workers to build their research skills to document key trends in low-wage industries. The institute conducts rigorous research and analysis on workplace standards and wage enforcement to keep employers accountable to labor laws.
Website: http://www.labor.ucla.edu/what-we-do/rework-institute-for-worker-justice/
Contact: Saba Waheed, Research Director
swaheed[at]ucla[dotedu
213-480-4155 x214
The Public Science Project
The Public Science Project conducts and supports participatory action research with a commitment to the significant knowledge people hold about their lives and experiences and a belief that those most intimately impacted by research should take the lead in shaping research questions, framing interpretations, and designing meaningful products and actions. PSP collaborates with community organizations, schools, prisons, and public institutions to design research and practice aimed at interrupting justice.
Website: http://publicscienceproject.org
Contact: Maria Elena Torre, Director
mtorre[at]publicscienceproject[dot]org
Phone: 212.817.1900
Race Forward
Race Forward research conducts cutting edge, original research on pressing racial justice issues. Focusing largely on institutional and structural racism as opposed to personal prejudice, Race Forward believes that a true understanding of social justice issues requires an explicit, though not exclusive, examination of race and ethnicity. Race Forward’s research and public policy agenda is built around the concept of “Race and …” – highlighting the intersection and compounding effects of race and key societal issues. Race Forward research also demonstrates the best ways to strengthen social change proactice by offering policy solutions that address the ways in which racism intersects with other forms of contemporary oppressions. In addition to conducting independent research initiatives that advance Race Forward’s racial justice agenda, Race Forward also collaborates with allied organizations and funders to develop and disseminate useful research to the racial justice field.
Website: https://www.raceforward.org/
Contact: Dominique Apollon, Research Director
dapollon[at]raceforward[dot]org
Phone: 510-653-3415
Human Impact Partners
Through research, advocacy, and capacity building, we help organizations and public agencies who work with low-income communities and communities of color understand the effects of current or proposed projects and policies on community health. And we help them use this information to take action.
HIP is one of the few organizations in the U.S. conducting health-based analyses with an explicit focus on uncovering and then addressing the policies and practices that make communities less healthy and create health inequities.
Our ultimate goal: transform the policies and places people need to live healthy lives.
Website: http://www.humanimpact.org/
Email: info[at]humanimpact[dot]org
Phone: 510-452-9442
Institute for Community Research
The Institute for Community Research conducts research in collaboration with community partners to promote justice and equity in a diverse, multiethnic, multicultural world.
ICR was founded in 1987 as a non-profit research institute to conduct applied and action research in partnership with communities and organizations in New England and beyond.
ICR Founding Executive Director, Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D., an anthropologist, came to ICR with the vision of creating an organization that stresses collaborative research to transform lives, build alliances, and address root causes of health and educational disparities in the U.S. and globally. That vision has grown with the addition of an interdisciplinary and diverse staff, to become a thriving local, national and international research institute.
Website: http://www.icrweb.org/
Contact: Maryann Abbott, Project Director
maryann.abbott[at]icrweb[dot]org
Phone: 860.278.2044
Individuals
Ujju Aggarwal aggarwau[at]newschool[dot]edu
Ujju Aggarwal is a Spencer Foundation/National Academy of Education Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research grows out of her longtime work as a community organizer and educator, and engages U.S. education policy in relation to race, class, gender, and urban space.
Mariame Kaba jjinjustice1[at]gmail[dot]com
Mariame Kaba is the founding director of a Project NIA. She has also founded other organizations and projects over the years including the Chicago Freedom School, the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women, the Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander and the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team (YWAT) among others. Her experience includes coordinating emergency shelter services at Sanctuary for Families in New York City, serving as the co-chair of the Women of Color Committee at the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network, working as the prevention and education manager at Friends of Battered Women and their Children (now called Between Friends), serving on the founding advisory board of the Women and Girls Collective Action Network (WGCAN) and being a member of Incite! Women of Color against Violence.
Donna Nevel donna[at]parceo[dot]org
Donna Nevel is a community psychologist, educator, and writer. She has been a long-time organizer for justice in public education and was a co-founder of the Project to Challenge Segregation in OUR Public Schools. She is on the board of The Bloomingdale Family Head Start Program and the Parent Leadership Project and was co-founder of the Center for Immigrant Families. She is also involved with groups working for Israeli-Palestinian peace and justice, and against Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. She teaches Participatory Action Research at NYU/Steinhardt.
Amrah Salomon ansalomo[at]ucsd[dot]edu
Amrah Salomon J. is a writer, community-builder, and educator of Native American (Pima/Akimel O’odham ancestry, not enrolled), Mexican, and European ancestry. She provides facilitation, workshops, and strategic consultation for community organizations, non-profits, unions, youth, and activists in the U.S. and abroad. Amrah is currently based in San Diego where she lives with her family.
Connie Wun wunconnie[at]gmail[dot]com
Connie Wun is an American Association for University Women Fellow and a Research Justice at the Intersections Scholar at Mills College. Most recently, Connie was the Director of Community-Driven Research at the DataCenter in Oakland, CA. She currently serves as a research consultant for the National Organization of Asian Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV). After finishing her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley in 2014, Dr. Wun became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois, Chicago in the College of Education. Her areas of expertise are in community-driven research, racial/gender violence, school discipline, and restorative/transformative justice.
For 20 years, she has worked as an educator, researcher, advocate/activist on issues of violence against communities of color. She is most passionate about training community members/organizations on community-driven research and conducts research on issues related to racial, gender, and economic violence. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Office, UC Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender, and the UC Berkeley Initiative for Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity.