Daniel Heifetz, PhD
Teaching Assistant Professor
Department of Religious Studies
University of Pittsburgh
Commentators: Janina López, MA
Graduate Student
Department of History of Art and Architecture
University of Pittsburgh
Hiba Siddiqui
Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow
University of Pittsburgh
Abstract: In an ongoing project about Queer Desis (diaspora South Asians), Dr. Daniel Heifetz has adopted a community-based participatory research (CBPR) model. In CBPR, a researcher learns what a community’s interests are, then involves community members in designing and carrying out research that serves those interests. In this colloquium session, Dr. Heifetz will address methodological challenges associated with implementing CBPR in this project. One of the risks of CBPR is that it can obfuscate a scholar’s power and positionality while instrumentalizing community for the sake of legitimation. CBPR also creates outcomes that can be at odds with institutional norms for academic productivity; for example, Dr. Heifetz’s community collaborators requested that this research culminate in a gala and zine.
Sponsored by the Humanities Center