Register now for PAR spring workshop at Highlander
Participatory Action Research Workshop and other resources
We had a really great Participatory Action Research (PAR) Webinar this past week - Thank you to everyone who came! Over 20 people registered, which shows strong interest!
We are pleased to share that the REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for the in-person PAR workshop.
You might note that the financial exchange for this is $500.
That's right. $500. For FIVE DAYS, including lodging (dorm style), food, programming, and community at Highlander, in the midst of some beautiful Tennessee mountains.
Honestly, this is an incredible offer. We can only offer this because of the generous partnership with Highlander, which is an organization deeply committed to Participatory Action Research.
Indeed, Highlander's relationship towards the generation of community-orientated knowledge and action (which is what PAR is all about) is integral to its existence. Before "PAR" had a name, Myles Horton’s Highlander Center was modeling it. In the 1930s, Horton rejected expert-led activism, instead creating spaces where Appalachian miners and Southern civil rights organizers (like Rosa Parks) could share stories, analyze systemic oppression, and ‘build’ collective solutions. This wasn’t research about people, this was with and for them. Highlander’s "citizen schools" turned lived experience into strategy, proving marginalized folks already hold the knowledge and expertise needed to dismantle inequality.
Now, many from the broader Highlander community, including Tufara Waller Muhammad who is known for her leadership in designing many social and economic justice initiatives, carry this legacy forward, using PAR to center community wisdom in movements.
Highlander’s ethos, "We make the road by walking" reminds us that liberation isn’t a blueprint handed down by academics. It’s co-created in conversation, action, and reflection. We might start by asking: *Who’s missing from this conversation? Whose knowledge counts?
If you have been wanting to learn more about facilitating PAR, please do join us at Highlander.
Please note that you will need to register SOON.
Participatory Action Research Workshop
Date: April 13 to 17
Highlander Research and Education Center, TN
***
Even as we prepare for this upcoming event, our staff member Krissy is on the West Coast for the Bioneers conference. We have long admired Bioneers, which has the tagline, "Revolution from the Heart of Nature." This year, they have a remarkable lineup of thought leaders, musicians, artists, scientists, and activists. After the conference, the key notes are all available online, so we encourage you to check them out. We especially appreciate their indigeneity program, which Krissy is a part of, which has been leading conversations on the intersections of indigeneity, regeneration, and justice by and for indigenous communities for many years now. Their programming includes Food and Farming, Womens Leadership, ecological design, restoring ecosystems, art, and justice. We are paying particular attention to conversations around what happens when we change the history of where we come from, especially the indigenous origins of democracy.
***
Resources
Thus, at this moment, we want to lift up some of the recent cool (and generally positive) resources they have been uplifting:
Mapping the Mycelial Web of Life - podcast
Stories are Weapons - an article
The nature of language and the language of nature - a podcast looking at native languages
Kate Lundquist and Brock Dolman: How We’re Winning the Campaign to Rehydrate the West - this is focusing on the California's team to bring back beavers and related work to support water.
We also wanted to uplift a really interesting webinar that Naomi Klein hosted that might be of interest: Feelings don't care about your facts webinar, which focuses on the intersections of climate change, 'disaster fascism' and conspiracy cultures, which delves into the difference between lived realities and conspiracies.
Finally, this recent book came to us that we want to share: The Shock of Colonialism in New England