Members

 If you would like to be an active and profiled cPARN member please send your picture and information to jaa286@cornell.edu
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Name: Tom Archibald

Degree/Program: MS/PhD Education (Adult & Extension Education)

I am interested participation and empowerment in non-formal, community-based education, especially with youth, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Both 'participation' and 'empowerment' have been roundly and rightly criticized in recent decades as hollow and coopted buzzwords; in my work, I hope to use participatory action research (PAR) with youth to understand if and how these concepts can be salvaged, hopefully contributing to improved educational praxis. Such a study also requires unpacking the contextually-mediated notion of 'youth,' and interrogating the ways in which globalization and neoimperialism are implicated in constituting youth as subjects through discursive and material educational practices. A separate yet related interest involves a critique of the evidence-based practice/program movement and of translational social science. I conceive of 'evidence' as a 'regime of truth' to analyze the ways in which conditions of possibility for localized, democratic educational praxis are canalized and closed off. I also facilitate participatory evaluation with a variety of non-formal educators and facilitate a PAR process with a grassroots transformative theater group in Auburn prison.

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Name: John Adam Armstrong
Degree/Program: PhD Education (Adult and Extension Education)

I am currently involved in a multi-site action research initiative entitled “Food Dignity: Action research on engaging food insecure communities and universities in building sustainable community food systems” (www.fooddignity.org) which began in April of 2011.  As a contributor to this project I am interested in pursuing an action research dissertation in partnership with Tompkins County residents, and members of the Whole Community Project of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County.  The project is in the preliminary stages so I’m starting to explore how my interests in narrative inquiry, discourse analysis, (auto)ethnography, social movement theory and community development can complement community partners’ knowledge, structures and skills to help create a just food system in Tompkins County.

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Name: Jen Ayres

Degree/Program: MA FSAD-Apparel Design (Consumption/Feminist Cultural Studies/ Ethnography/ Cultural Geography)

I am graduating in May, but will be going on to NYU's American Studies program doing work on informal laborers and transnational migration (Mexican-American and Mexican male junk sellers that accumulate goods at West Coast/South West thrift stores and then cross the US/Mexico border to divest and re-sell at flea markets in Mexico). Although my research interests lie in ethnography and auto-ethnography with very different implications for 'participant observation' than the kind of participation in Action Research, I am interested in the overt discussion and active negotiation of power relations that PAR allows. Because I focus on consumption and identity production/ subject positioning, and deal with informal laborers in a neo-liberal context, PAR is not an option or strategy my research can currently employ (secretive informal laborers that do not identify by their 'flexible' and insecure line of work, shady corporate  entities & business practices that do not allow relationships with researchers, and high stakes individual border crossings that do not allow for a large organization or mobilization of people). Yet PAR has been incredibly helpful for understanding different approaches, methodologies, and strategies to research that pro-actively question the production of intellectual property and knowledge- questions researchers need to ask of their own positioning as 'researchers' and complicity with institutional oppression and imperialism.From afar, I will look forward to seeing the growth of the revived PAR community at Cornell.

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Name: Christina Davis

Degree/Program: MRP City and Regional Planning

Hi, my name is Christina Davis and I am currently finishing up a masters program in City and Regional Planning. Following this, I’ll be in Paris and Berlin for the summer for a human rights fellowship and then after that, 2+ years in Macedonia for a Peace Corps Placement.  Broadly, PAR appeals to me because the researcher and community/ stakeholders share a responsibility in creating the research questions, searching for answers, and assigning validity to the results. In my field of study, urban planning, I see this type of research as a way to strengthen participatory and collaborative planning and ultimately create more effective policies. Currently, I am not working on any projects that directly utilize PAR, but I believe my thesis topic is closely related- I am exploring how narrative methods and exchanges (storytelling, oral histories, sustained dialogue projects, etc) can play a role in alleviating racial and ethnic inequities/conflict. Though I am not entirely sure what my future holds, academically or professionally, I hope to continue using PAR and dialogue strategies to inform and improve my work.

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Name: Courtney Knapp

Degree/ Program: PhD City and Regional Planning
  

My research interests range from the development of new community organizing and engagement techniques (such as community benefits agreements, university-community partnerships, and community-based asset mapping) to more theoretical projects focused on the relationship between history, place, memory, and the development of urban physical and social landscapes.  I am currently in the process of developing a mixed-method dissertation proposal focused on theorizing “diasporic placemaking” in the context of community revitalization programs in Chattanooga, TN and Minneapolis, MN.  This dissertation project will ask two broad questions related to culture-based revitalization and its impacts on residents living in Chattanooga and Minneapolis:  1) How is culture-based placemaking and planning contributing to urban revitalization in these two cities? And 2) what effect do these efforts have on historically marginalized residents’ sense of place, security, hope and community belonging?  I intend to include an action research component to this project, likely in the form of participatory community mapping exercises. These maps will offer important insights into how residents of Chattanooga and Minneapolis relate to and understand their social and physical environments—lessons that are crucial for planners and policymakers who are committed to equitable, sustainable community development.

        Prior to coming to Cornell, I was engaged in several community-based research projects in the Boston area, including a community-based needs assessment in the Hyde Park neighborhood; working with a local youth environmental organization to develop a diesel emissions reduction toolkit for delivery trucks; assisting an environmental justice organization in Chelsea, MA with research to fight off a proposed diesel power plant; and working with the Allston Brighton North Neighbors Forum to support their negotiation of a community benefits agreement with Harvard University as part of the university's massive campus expansion into the North Allston neighborhood.  In addition to my membership with CPARN, I am an active member of several other campus organizations, including the Save Africana Studies and Research Center Action Committee (SAC) , the Organization of Cornell Planners (OCP), and Planning Students for Diversity (PSD).

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Name: Bryan Sobel

Degree/ Program: MS Horticulture and Food Science
  

I would like to promote rural economic development, improve dietary choices of North American Consumers, and promote the Practice of Forest Farming as a discipline of Agroforestry. Agroforestry is a cultivation system that seeks to create a diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land use system. Forest Farming is a particular type of Agroforestry in which specialty crops, like mushrooms, are cultivated in the unique microclimate created by the forest canopy. In New York State, approximately 14 million acres of non-industrial forestland lie in the hands of roughly 500,000 private landowners. Forest Farming of medicinal gourmet mushrooms provides a unique opportunity for rural forestland owners in the state of New York and beyond.According to the Center for Disease Control, cancer is the number two leading cause of death in the United States. Current chemotherapeutic treatments are most effective when the cancer is caught early, but there is still significant risk of relapse. Recent evidence suggests that the immunomodulating effect of certain mushroom species may prevent this relapse as well as further inhibition of cancer cell growth.
Comparison of agricultural paradigms has been a long running debate in many academic communities. The Organic vs. Conventional debate has been limited by current scientific knowledge as well as inherent variance in cropping systems. With that being said, physiological processes have evolved to help organisms survive stressful situations and pass on their genetic heritage. Many these 'stress-coping' processes result in secondary metabolites that have shown to benefit human health, including cancer prevention. The logical argument continues that if a crop is allowed to defend itself against the environment, then it will generate greater levels of secondary metabolites and potentially provide greater benefit to human health.
Through my research, I will look at cultivation methods of gourmet mushrooms, for creating a crop that exhibits the greatest beneficial health qualities. These results can be used to argue differences in cropping systems and distribution channels, in an effort to promote sustainable agriculture