TCP 54 (2) Spring 2021
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A Publication of the Society for Community Research and Action |
Volume 54, Number 2 Spring 2021 |
From the President
Notes from the President
Written by Bianca L. Guzmán, California State University, Los Angeles
Here we are in 2021. We still have a pandemic and many of us are working virtually. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I used to say that “I am in Zoom jail.” I could not get used to mostly being on Zoom for many of my meetings and interactions with other colleagues around the country and the world. I am well into hitting a year mark on Zoom and I have found that there are few interesting and fun things I like about Zoom.
From the Editors
Written by Dominique Thomas, Independent Scholar and Allana Zuckerman, Mesa Community College
Hello everyone! We are excited to bring you another issue of The Community Psychologist!
There is another fantastic set of articles focusing on projects and work across the field. We want to provide you with a preview of this spring’s issue.
Community Psychology Practice in Undergraduate Settings
Edited by Mayra Guerrero and Olya Glantsman, DePaul University
A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT COURSE GOES VIRTUAL
Written by Elizabeth Thomas, Rhodes College
This brief report describes a partnership between my Community Psychology classes at Rhodes College and BRIDGES, USA, a youth leadership organization located close to our campus in Memphis, Tennessee. I was able to share insights about this partnership at the Undergraduate Interest Group virtual meeting in fall 2020, and was invited to provide a brief report about it here, which I was glad to do!
Council for Cultural, Ethnic, and Racial Affairs
Edited by Geraldine (Geri) Palmer, Community Wellness Institute (CWI), Adler University and National Louis University
DISRUPTING THE CINDERELLA PREMISE: TRANSFORMING OUR CLASSROOMS, COMMUNITIES, AND GLOBAL SPACES
Written by Geraldine (Geri) Palmer, Community Wellness Institute (CWI), Adler University and National Louis University
“I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change…
I’m changing the things I cannot accept.”
Angela Davis
The Criminal Justice Interest Group
Edited by Candalyn B. Rade, Penn State Harrisburg
The Criminal Justice Interest Group Column features the work and ideas of our members. We encourage readers to reach out to the column authors if they are interested in learning more or exploring possible collaboration. We invite readers to join one of our upcoming Learning Community Series presentations during which Criminal Justice Interest Group members share their work virtually to foster a learning community. More information and recording of prior presentations can be viewed at https://www.scra27.org/who-we-are/interest-groups/criminal-justice-interest-group/. We also invite readers to check out the upcoming special issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology titled Criminal Justice and Community Psychology: Our Values and Our Work, guest edited by interest group members: Carolyn Tompsett, Jessica Shaw, Candalyn Rade, Benjamin Fisher, and Nicole Freund. This special issue was developed out of conversations and collaborations within the interest group with the intention of exploring how community psychologists engaged in value-driven criminal justice research, practice, and policy.
Early Career Interest Group
Edited by Vernita Perkins, Omnigi Research
The Early Career Interest Group Quarterly Column
Edited by Vernita Perkins, Omnigi Research
Meet the Early Career Members
Each quarter, we will continue to introduce members of the Early Career Interest Group. Learn more about our members and explore possibilities for research collaboration and community practice.
Jordan Tackett
My journey begins with learning to go with the flow when opportunities present themselves. During my Bachelors degree at California State University, Chico, the final semester required me to complete a specialized writing course; and the only open seat was in CP. This was the most empowering and grueling semester of my senior year, which also fostered my innate passion for human well-being. On the last day of this degree, with no future ideas of how to explore this field, I successfully applied to a Master’s program.
Education Connection
Edited by Mason G. Haber, Independent Community Psychologist
THE RACIAL JUSTICE INQUIRY, DISCOURSE, AND ACTION IN COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY EDUCATION (RJIDA) INITIATIVE
Written by Mason G. Haber, Independent Community Psychologist
In the Winter Issue of The Community Psychologist, the Education Connection provided an overview of the goals and activities of the Council on Education and how these have changed over time in pursuit of our mission to support, advocate and advance the excellence, growth, diversity, and social justice impact of education in community psychology and community research and action. Also discussed were the planned efforts of the COE for the year to promote racial justice prior to and following the Call to Action on Anti-Blackness. These included developing a resource page, developing a statement on the use of the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) in graduate community psychology training programs, engaging in outreach and discussions related to racial justice, and producing tools for training programs to advance their racial justice goals including a self-assessment and curriculum guidelines. This column now turns to the COEs new initiative to advance several of these racial justice-related activities and others during the current year and beyond: the Racial Justice Inquiry, Discourse, and Action (RJIDA) Initiative.
From Our Members
Edited by Dominique Thomas, Independent Scholar
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two Spirit Peoples (MMIW2S): Deconstructing Colonial Ties to Domestic and Sexual Violence
Written by Sarah María Acosta Ahmad, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Centro Multicultural La Familia
“Domination and colonization attempt to destroy our capacity to know the self, to know who we are. We oppose this violation, this dehumanization, when we seek self-recovery, when we work to reunite fragments of being, to recover our history. This process of self-recovery enables us to see ourselves as if for the first time, for our field of vision is no longer shaped and determined solely by the condition of domination.”
- hooks (2014),p.31
International Committee
Edited by Douglas D. Perkins, Vanderbilt University and Olga Oliveira Cunha, NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities.
The Development and Sinicization of Community Psychology in China
Written by Liping Yang, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China; Xiting Huang, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Douglas D. Perkins, Vanderbilt University, USA; Xihe Li and Mengge Tan, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, Zijun Sun, University of Glasgow, UK
Community Psychology (CP) started late in China, but has developed rapidly in recent years. In its early stages, Chinese CP absorbed concepts, theories and experience from Western CP. Chinese psychologists then carried out an innovation and a theoretical reconstruction. Chinese CP has now been “Sinicized,” or formally established on its own Chinese terms.
Living Community Psychology
Edited by Gloria Levin, glorialevin@verizon.net
“Living Community Psychology” highlights a community psychologist through an in-depth interview that is intended to depict both personal and professional aspects of the featured individual. The intent is to personalize Community Psychology as it is lived by its diverse practitioners. Prior columns (which date from the late 1980s) are available online at http://www.scra27.org/publications/tcp/tcp-past-issues These past columns contain a wealth of life advice gleaned from over 65 profiled community psychologists, from graduate students to retirees, representing an invaluable resource for community psychologists.
For this installment, we feature Chris Beasley, whose personal background was the antithesis of his current role as a scholar. And yet his experiences as an incarcerated law breaker form the basis of his current scholarship and advocacy. His academic history was all earned post prison, proceeding from community college through a Ph.D. from DePaul University. He conducts research on formerly incarcerated persons who seek and achieve academic success but also is an active leader in the formation of social networks for these persons, encouraging a strong sense of community and possibilities for their futures.
Prevention and Promotion Interest Group
Edited by Susana Helm, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Prevention & Promotion IG Co-Chairs: Toshi Sasao, Kayla DeCant, Susana Helm.
The Prevention & Promotion IG column of The Community Psychologist highlights P&P resources as well as the P&P work of community psychologists and allied professionals. Please email me if you would like to submit a brief report or if you have resources we may list.
This quarter, Professor Toshi Sasao has provided an overview of recent work from the Peace Research Institute of International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan where he serves as the current Director of the Institute, as well as Chair in the Department of Education and Language Education. In addition to a brief report, Toshi has added this memoriam:
Real Talk
Edited by Dominique Thomas, Independent Scholar and Allana Zuckerman, Mesa Community College
We are excited to debut the first ever The Community Psychologist (TCP) podcast!
For our first episode, we discuss relevant issues to the field of community psychology including key areas we feel are important to consider for community psychology moving forward. We discuss topics such as mentoring in graduate programs, colonialism in the US education system, the increased need for critical discussion of concrete social issues, the role of the intellectual, and recommendations for the future. Specific citations from readings referenced in this podcast are in the reading circle for the current issue.
Regional Network News
Submitted by Regional Coordinators
NEWS FROM THE WESTERN REGION U.S.
WESTERN REGIONAL COORDINATORS
Rachel Hershberg, University of Washington Tacoma; Erin Rose Ellison, California State University-Sacramento
The SCRA west region coordinators do not have any regional announcements to share but would like to circulate information about the Early Career Interest Group, which is open to early career SCRA affiliated scholars and practitioners everywhere. Please see details below. If you would like to contact us with questions or announcements to share pertaining to the west region in particular, please reach out to Rachel M. Hershberg, Ph.D., University of Washington Tacoma, rmhersh@uw.edu, or Erin Rose Ellison, Ph.D., ellison@csus.edu.
Self-Help and Mutual Support Interest Group
Edited by Thomasina Borkman, George Mason University and Ronald Harvey, American University in Bulgaria
ORGANIZING AND EXPANDING THE SELF-HELP SUPPORT GROUP, “NEW BEGINNINGS”: PART 2 OF 3
Written by Carol Randolph, New Beginnings
[Carol Randolph, founder of New Beginnings (NB) continues her narrative (story) of how the group became organized, grew and evolved in functions over the last 41 years in this second installment. The third and final installment will discuss how the internet affected New Beginnings as well as other self-help support groups and relate New Beginnings’ journey to that of other similar groups. Contact: NewBCarol@verizon.net and www.newbeginningsusa.org]
Student Issues
Edited by Camilla Cummings, DePaul University
“UN SOLO PIE ADENTRO”: SENSE OF COMMUNITY OF PUERTO RICANS IN MIAMI
Written by Andrea C. Ruiz-Sorrentini, University of Miami
Transnational migrants’ identities are configured in relationship to more than one place and are continuously pulled in different directions as old and new members of multiple communities are wrapped in a single experience (Aranda, Hughes, & Sabogal, 2014). Broadly defined, transnationalism refers to the maintenance of identity claims and practices that connect people living in different geographical spaces to a specific territory that they see as their homeland (Duany, 2003; Glick Schiller, 2005). As the patterns of relationships between immigrants and hosts are changing dramatically in the global era (Van Oudenhoven & Ward, 2013), scholars (Duany, 2003; Aranda 2007) have argued that the Puerto Rican experience should be understood within the transnational paradigm. Due to Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. Commonwealth, and therefore lack of national boundaries, functional or symbolic ties might put Puerto Rican migrants in a position of manifesting a partial membership in both countries. This requires us to expand traditional notions of sense of community as a process and as an enactment of connections among people, settings, and social spaces (Li, Hodgetts, & Sonn, 2014).
Reading Circle
Edited by Dominique Thomas, Independent Scholar and Allana Zuckerman, Mesa Community College
To encourage ongoing dialogue with each other about what we are reading and how those readings are influencing our work, we are starting a reading circle and recommended reading list. Each issue we will share resources that have influenced our work and provide a space for additional submissions. This is a space for people to share what they are reading so we can get an idea of the different knowledge bases people are exposed to and what is influencing their research and practice. This is also a way for us to share information and knowledge across a variety of topics to showcase and enhance richness of thought within the field.
For this issue, we have included citations for the reading circle that were referenced in our first ever TCP podcast! If you want to hear more about the research below, please listen to our podcast TCP podcast episode 1 in the Real Talk column.
SCRA News
Edited by Dominique Thomas, Independent Scholar
WELCOME OUR NEW ED DR. AMBER KELLY!
Dr. Amber E. Kelly is a community psychologist and Founder of Community Engagement Collective (CEC), a community-based nonprofit organization serving Cincinnati communities. The mission of CEC is to foster human-centered connections through community-engaged events and research. She has lived in major metropolitan cities working on initiatives that strived to eliminate inequities among disenfranchised populations. Her experiences in nonprofit leadership, inclusion, community outreach, program evaluation, research, and education make her an asset to the role of Executive Director of SCRA.
SCRA Member Spotlight
Edited by Dominique Thomas, Independent Scholar
The SCRA Member Spotlight lets us engage our members and highlight great work! Each issue we solicit submissions of accomplishments. We especially would like students, early career scholars, and practitioners to submit their accomplishments and work. Submissions can include but are certainly not limited to:
- New jobs
- Post-docs
- Promotions
- Thesis/Dissertation Defenses
- Newly published journal articles, books, chapters
- Podcasts, blogs, news items that are by or about you
- Certifications or other credentials
- Retirement
- Grants
- Awards
- Successful/ongoing projects
- New projects or community initiatives
If you are interested in submitting for the next issue, please click this link and fill out the form. We hope to hear from you!