Community-Driven Curating in Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan R. Flattley

The exhibition Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana (2019) developed community-driven and co-productive curatorial practices through a partnership with directly impacted stakeholders. This article presents three characteristics that made the partnership between the Newcomb Art Museum and consultants from a community of formerly incarcerated women and activists in New Orleans a success: an understanding of the politics of both the issue and the site, a sharing and collective building of power, and a polyvocal exhibition format. Within the context of the role of curating in struggles for social justice, this article outlines the importance of working with external actors, such as movement leaders and activists, to ensure accountability, equity and reciprocity in exhibitions that address social issues.

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-284
Author(s):  
Alana Gunn

Formerly incarcerated women face diverse challenges to re-entry, which include recovering from health illnesses and trauma to navigating various systems of stigma and surveillance. It is these multilevel challenges to reintegration that also make formerly incarcerated women vulnerable participants in research. As such, this qualitative study explores how 28 formerly incarcerated Black women experience the research interview process. Findings revealed that women participated in research because these contexts were viewed as spaces for “truth telling” and increasing awareness that can effect changes in the lives of communities facing trauma. Moreover, the participants perceived the interview process to allow them to share their pasts in ways that can promote healing and recovery. Participants also discussed risks of emotional distress and anticipatory fears regarding imbalanced researcher–participant dynamics. The implications for antioppressive, compassionate interviewing practices underscore the need for greater considerations of the role of the researcher and how they contribute to women’s recovery from complex trauma and illness.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174889582110058
Author(s):  
Alana J. Gunn ◽  
Melissa Hardesty ◽  
Nicole Overstreet ◽  
Scyatta Wallace

While current ethical procedures aim to minimize risks to imprisoned individuals, there is heightened awareness of the need to protect those who participate in research post-incarceration while under community-based supervision. Formerly incarcerated women, in particular, face myriad challenges to community reintegration which also make them vulnerable participants in research. As such, this study explores how 28 formerly incarcerated Black women experience the qualitative research process. Findings revealed that women engaged in research because these contexts were viewed as therapeutic spaces for raising awareness that can help others. Moreover, the interview process allowed women to share their pasts in ways that promote their recovery from addiction. Participants also reported risks of emotional distress and fears regarding researcher stigma. The implications for trauma-informed interviewing practices underscore the need for greater considerations of the role of the researcher, research environment, and how they contribute to one’s personal recovery.


2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott M Larson

Urban park designers have long championed the social underpinnings of their work. Of late, however, certain landscape practitioners have articulated a more explicit connection between park design and social objectives, arguing that the fundamental role of urban parks is to foster equity and justice. Drawing on Marxian geographer David Harvey’s notion of the geographical imagination, this paper interrogates the relationship between parks and social processes by exploring the role that social issues have historically played in urban park design and by unpacking the prevailing imaginaries of social justice landscape architects and designers have employed in contemporary urban park projects. In doing so, it juxtaposes the lofty rhetoric of designing for social justice against the material reality of development-driven urban regeneration. In this way, the geographic imaginary provides a framework for understanding the limited capacity of urban park design to address broader social issues, even as it offers a mechanism for conceiving and articulating alternatives that more completely address the conditions through which social injustice occurs.


2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-55

Participatory action research (PAR), as a “new paradigm” approach, involves additional ethical and political issues beyond those encountered in empirical and interpretive models of science. This paper describes PAR methodology, a comprehensive ethical framework that is inclusive of the ethic of care and virtue, and applications with formerly incarcerated women.


2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 74-78
Author(s):  
Mickey L. Parsons, ◽  
Catherine Robichaux, ◽  
Carmen Warner-Robbins,

Participatory action research (PAR), as a “new paradigm” approach, involves additional ethical and political issues beyond those encountered in empirical and interpretive models of science. This paper describes PAR methodology, a comprehensive ethical framework that is inclusive of the ethic of care and virtue, and applications with formerly incarcerated women.


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