Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Senior Scholars Paper (Open Access)

Department

Colby College. Education Program

Advisor(s)

Lyn Mikel Brown

Second Advisor

Mark Tappan

Third Advisor

Lisa Arellano

Abstract

In this paper, I review and analyze the year long implementation of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project at a small-town alternative education program. PAR is a feminist research method, as well as a form of feminist education, in the way that it facilitates a critical-consciousness raising. PAR is queer in its emphasis on analyzing social and relational structures, as well as in the way that it subverts power dynamics within traditional, heteronormative research; it also is distinctly queer in its ability to imagine other ways of being while orienting itself toward social change. Finally, this paper offers a critical analysis of the process of conducting PAR within the academy and the ways in which the academy operates to limit the radical reach of queer and feminist theory.

Keywords

queer, Participatory Action Research, feminism, queer futurity, feminist education, Waterville

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