Date of Award
Spring 5-11-2023
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School
School of Design
First Advisor
Sheena Erete, PhD
Second Advisor
Denise Nacu, PhD
Third Advisor
Tawanna Dillahunt, PhD
Fourth Advisor
Jakita O. Thomas, PhD
Abstract
For this dissertation, I analyzed collaboration practices and power structures within three community-based participatory research (CBPR) studies I conducted for my Ph.D. I ask: 1) How do dominant power structures, epistemologies, and narratives manifest in HCI research and praxis? 2) How can we structure research to support our community partners' goals while resisting dominating and extractive practices in academic research? To respond to these questions, I conducted member checking interviews with my collaborators and a duoethnography with my dissertation advisor, Dr. Sheena Erete, about our experiences in the studies as a Black female professor and a white female graduate student. I grounded my findings in Black feminist thought by employing the intersectional analysis method developed by Erete, Rankin, and Thomas (2022).
Through my intersectional analysis, I identified how systems of power and disciplinary norms influenced Dr. Erete's and my decisions about how to structure our collaborations and organize our time and labor. These decisions impacted the distribution of benefit and harm within our collaborations. Systems of power also manifested in cultural narratives imbued within the studies; these narratives informed our methods and interactions with our collaborators and community members. I organize these findings into five saturated sites of power (a term developed by Collins, 2019) within CBPR. These are sites where intersecting systems of power acutely impact collaborators' experiences and study outcomes. To support researchers in developing a non-extractive and mutually beneficial CBPR practice, I offer a set of reflexive prompts that address three themes: 1) evaluating researchers’ capacity for the work; 2) distributing resources through CBPR; and 3) using narratives as a reflexive tool. This dissertation contributes to critical human-computer interaction (HCI) literature and offers recommendations that researchers can use to intentionally co-design studies that mitigate harm and advance community-defined goals.
Recommended Citation
Dickinson, Jessa, "Identifying and transforming sites of power in collaborative community-based research" (2023). College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations. 50.
https://via.library.depaul.edu/cdm_etd/50