Sunday, June 12, 2022
Assembling Common Worlds through Participatory Research
Max 10 participants
90 minutes
Facilitator: Dr. Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak
Children are being increasingly recognized as capable of documenting and sharing their perspectives, needs, and actions. This recognition has in turn resulted in the emergence of participatory research approaches, with children viewed as knowing subjects who contribute to the research process, including identifying research questions, designing the methodology, collecting and analyzing data, and disseminating findings. Participatory research with children as co-producers of knowledge encourages epistemic diversity and enables attuning research to children’s interests and expertise, thereby fostering an ethics of intergenerational connectivity. While it is frequently used in childhood studies, it is not common practice in children’s literature scholarship. In this workshop, we will try to connect literature-focused participatory research with assembling common worlds, possibly including not only humans, but also other species and matter. The participants will be asked to read the publications listed below before the workshop and think of participatory research projects they would like to work on in the future. During the workshop we will share these ideas and discuss the challenges and opportunities.
Preliminary reading
(PDF's will be provided to workshop registrants)
Bastian, Michelle. “Towards a more-than-human participatory research.” In Bastian, M., O. Jones, N. Moore, E. Roe (eds). Participatory Research in More-than-human Worlds. London: Routledge, 2017. 19-37.
Deszcz Tryhubczak Justyna, "Thinking with Deconstruction: Book-Adult-Child Events in Children's Literature Research." Oxford Literary Review 41.2 (2019): 185-201.
Young, Tracy and Bone Jane. “Troubling Intersections of Childhood/Animals/Education: Narratives of Love, Life, and Death.” In Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles A., Malone K., Barratt Hacking E. (eds) Research Handbook on Childhoodnature. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham, 2020.