Recap: Remaking the Table Series Launch

This fall, SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) launched Remaking the Table—a public webinar series dedicated to exploring the tensions, challenges, and horizons for community-engaged research (CER). The aim of the series is to dive into a broad range of topics, hear from diverse voices and explore strategies and solutions on more equitable and just approaches to CER.

Remaking the Table was kicked off on November 18, 2020, with a panel introducing members of the CERi team. The panel was moderated by Jackie Wong, CERi’s Community Strategic Initiatives Associate, and featured CERi co-directors Am Johal and Stuart R. Poyntz, Research and Engagement Coordinator Tara Mahoney,  and Kari Grain, Special Research Associate.

The panelists detailed the work they’re doing with CERi. Mahoney started off the discussion by focusing on the Community Handbook which will be launched in early 2021. It will offer a practical and accessible guide to CER and serve a broad range of audiences, including community groups, non-profits, public and private foundations, and government agencies. Mahoney described how this handbook “grounds ourselves in the value of social transformation, which is a value we founded CERi on.”

Fundamental to that are ethics. “For me ... this is about acknowledging the fact that just because you pass your institutional ethics review [it] does not make your research ethical from a community engagement standpoint.” This year, Grain conducted a literature review of over 40 CER resources, which informed her work in presenting 10 CER ethical principles which can help ensure that CER is grounded in fair and equitable engagement.

Johal and Poyntz illustrated the future direction of CERi expressing the hope that the initiative can eventually transform into a permanent structure within SFU to support scholars, graduate students, and community members doing CER. Key to that will be several projects and areas of focus including work around decolonization, collaborations with partners in the arts, a CER symposium, a State of the Field Conference in 2022 and continuing to explore questions regarding equity in CER.

Watch the full recording of this event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1n9K0gQIY8

The Remaking the Table series takes place on the third Wednesday of each month from 1-2 pm.