Rogers-Brown, Jennifer. (2023). Democratising Participatory Research: Pathways to Social Justice from the South. Contemporary Sociology, 52(3), 257–259. https://doi.org/10.1177/00943061231172096u

Please check out my recent book review publication in the May 2023 issue of Contemporary Sociology. I review the book “Democratising Participatory Research: Pathways to Social Justice from the South” by Carmen Martinez-Vargas.

Here’s the opening couple paragraphs from the review:

“Carmen Martinez-Vargas’ Democratising Participatory Research: Pathways to Social Justice from the South demonstrates the potential of a participatory research process, informed by decolonial debate, to bridge diverse areas of knowledge production and empower co-researchers and participants.

Martinez-Vargas proposes a new research process called “Democratic Capabilities Research” (DCR), which reimagines the Capabilities Approach (CA) with a deliberate focus on a participatory process and decolonial debate from a Global South perspective. Participatory research can be a tool for democratizing research through providing access to research exploration and equal involvement in knowledge production to groups historically left out of this process. However, Martinez-Vargas’ project expands Western-dominated applications of participatory research and shows the value of a “flexible ontological approach that is able to accommodate different epistemic systems” (p. 68). She also illustrates what a DCR project may look like through an analysis of a collaborative project at the University of the Free State in South Africa.”

I am happy to announce that I won the election to be the new Treasurer-Elect of the Sociologists for Women in Society. This is a three-year term where I serve as Treasurer-Elect for one year before moving on to be Treasurer and then Past-Treasurer. Each position holds new responsibilities and committee assignments. I am happy to be part of the council leadership at the organization. I am a long-time member of SWS. It has been an academic home for me since graduate school.

Thank you students and fellow faculty! I am honored to receive the 2020 LIU David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching. This is a career award for teaching at Long Island University. I am overwhelmed at the wonderful letters and evaluations offered by my peers.

I had an exciting day at the 9/20 Fridays For Future rally and climate strike in New York City. I traveled with fellow members of the Long Island Mothers Out Front group and met up with a group of LIU Post faculty and students. My day was captured in this article by Newsday, this video by Newsday, and this video by Mothers Out Front!

Mothers Out Front was also just awarded the UN Global Climate Action Award: Women for Results.

On April 26, 2017, I was honored to co-host the annual Sustainability Dinner and Awards Ceremony. Our keynote speaker this year was former Congressman Steve Israel. Congressman Israel recently started the LIU Global Institute. He spoke about the need to push for policy on campus, in the community, and in the US to protect the environment. He noted that climate change is a recognized as a threat to national security. Chef Justin, and his Aramark team, prepared a delicious vegan dinner – thereby lessening the environmental impact of the email.

The editors for Advances in Gender Research selected my chapter “More than a War Story: A Feminist Analysis of Doing Dangerous Fieldwork” for Emerald’s Outstanding Author Contribution award. As part of this award my paper is available free for download for one year. You can see other winners here. I highly suggest publishing with Advances in Gender Research. I enjoyed working with the editors, Vasilikie Demos and Marcia Texler Segal.