Decolonizing the Academy: Lessons From the Graduate Certificate in Participatory Research at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Abstract

The Graduate Certificate in Participatory Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is intended for graduate and professional students who desire training in carrying out research in equitable partnership with, instead of on, communities. This article, written collaboratively by five of the participants in the development of the Certificate, highlights critical practices vital to efforts toward decolonizing academic research: (a) disrupting or circumventing gatekeeping mechanisms that maintain hierarchies of exclusion, (b) creating avenues for privileging a greater range of voices in knowledge production, and (c) providing training for research traditions that engage participants as coproducers of knowledge.