2025 Summer Seminar

Community-Based Design Research Methods: Co-Designing Transformative Research with Families and Communities

The CCSRE Research Institute was pleased to host the inaugural seminar in its Summer Research Methods Seminar Series: Community-Based Research Design, led by Prof Megan Bang (Northwestern) in June 2025.

This seminar examined the purposes and historically situated needs of community-engaged research, its foundational principles and practices, and the ethical and relational commitments required when partnering with communities across disciplines. Presenters and participants emphasized that research and knowledge building are central human activities that have shaped communities over time, but that systemic power dynamics have narrowed who contributes to knowledge production, limited the range of solutions developed, and affected research uptake.

Over four sessions, the seminar demonstrated how engaging community—broadly defined—can disrupt entrenched power relations in research and open possibilities for novel questions, innovative knowledge production, and transformative solutions. Sessions also highlighted sustained partnership as a strategy for enabling systemic change rather than a one-off engagement technique.

While the seminar was grounded by discussions of research on human learning and development, but attendees also considered community-engaged methods across a range of disciplinary topics. Organizers clarified that the course served as an introduction to community-engaged methods rather than full preparation for independent community-based research practice.

The 2025 seminar drew a diverse group of scholars, practitioners, and community partners, fostering rich dialogue and new connections. Participants reported increased awareness of ethical and relational dimensions of community-engaged work and left with practical frameworks and references to guide future collaboration.