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New! Summer 2022
Intern wanted: Coordinator for Online Conference    
Start Date: May 1, 2022

Contact  Nathan Paul Jones, Internship Director. nathan.p.jones@colorado.edu

Community-Based Learning: benefits, challenges and lessons

This research project will explore the past three decades of community engagement by examining the historical evolution of three affiliated research organizations at CU Boulder: CEDER, CYE, and CEDaR. Research students will conduct interviews and present findings in an exhibit and publish the results as a journal paper. A total of four students will help with this project: two will be engaged in primary data collection and two will design the exhibit based on data analysis. Students in the fall will have the opportunity to continue their work into the spring semester. The collaborative student team promotes the inclusion of diverse perspectives and skills, as well as collaborative energy.

Antiracism in action: participatory mapping of cultural resources with Boulder’s BIPOC community

How can we provide more just and equitable cultural resources in our community? In this project, Community Engagement, Design and Research (CEDaR) teams up with the Antiracism in the Arts Initiative (AAI) to mentor undergraduate research assistants in a dynamic participatory antiracist cultural mapping exercise. Undergraduate researchers will work with AAI and CEDaR faculty and staff to design, develop, and facilitate the participation of community members in mapping the kinds of cultural and arts resources they seek access and inclusion with as well as their reflections on the ways that such resources are inequitably distributed or even exclusive. This work will develop theoretical and methodological grounding in antiracist design and planning literature. We seek interdisciplinary, critical, and engaged undergraduate researchers for work on this project during the spring, summer, and potentially fall of 2022. 

Seeking inclusive community collaborative space design in the era of the sharing economy 

We modify the environment; however, the environment in return modifies us. In this project, we invite students to engage in this question. The last decade has seen a profound transformation of workspaces. Technology innovations and new entrepreneurial frameworks such as the gig economy have opened the opportunity to rethink how space can provide opportunities for collaboration. Spatial transformations have seen contemporary workspaces adapt to these new working and collaborative arrangements. However, these new configurations are characterized by class and homogenized racial perspectives about engagement. New collaborative spaces alienate and discriminate against diverse groups, excluding their participation. The purpose of this study will be to explore the spatial characteristics of collaborative community workplaces with an emphasis on answer: How do the spatial features in a creative workplace environment facilitate collaborative work with diverse audiences?  By exploring how physical spaces can be designed in ways that improve collaborative work between CU Boulder and the diverse individuals and institutions with which we collaborate. Undergraduate researchers will engage in the research design, data collection, leading design charrettes, building a prototype to be tested by community participants, and analyzing and writing findings. In addition, we seek interdisciplinary, critical, and engaged undergraduate researchers for work on this project during the spring, summer, and potentially fall of 2022 and Spring 2023.

This research project is sponsored by an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) grant  from the Office of undergraduate education