Research Ethics and Cultural Competence in Environmental Fields
Call for Applications
Summer Graduate Research Training Workshop*
Research Ethics and Cultural Competence in
Environmental Science, Engineering and Related Fields
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF)
Syracuse, New York
August 17-19, 2011
This summer, the Dept. of Environmental Studies at SUNY-ESF will host a three-day graduate training workshop, part of the NSF-funded, Northeast Ethics Education Partnership with Brown University’s Center for Environmental Studies. The workshop, to be led by Drs. Dianne Quigley (PI) and David A. Sonnenfeld (co-PI), is designed for up to 20 graduate students in Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies and related fields in upstate New York**, planning to conduct field-based environmental research for their dissertation or thesis work, and who need or desire training on protection of human subjects, including for Institutional Review Board (IRB) review of their research plans. Priority will be given to second or third year PhD students in the process of developing their research proposals.
Developing research ethics protections with communities and culturally-diverse groups needs more attention in research ethics training. More and more community groups are forming partnerships with academic researchers. Both communities and cultural groups need to ensure that research exploitation, community stigma harms and culturally-inappropriate research practices can be prevented in research interventions. Communities and cultural groups increasingly require that research activities produce beneficial change and positive outcomes to their local community settings. For all the particular contextual and cultural conditions of place-based communities, community-based beneficence and approvals for research will involve very complex decision-making for research designs, methods and outcomes.
Training in research ethics and cultural diversity will prepare students with new research approaches/ methods appropriate to environmental field research, community-based partnerships and research with cultural groups. Participants will learn about required human subjects protections (i.e., informed consent, beneficence), ethical and cultural competence theories, and will review environmental case studies for community-based, culturally-appropriate approaches. Upon completing the workshop, graduate students will be prepared to complete IRB applications and address common human subjects protections.
The workshop will be held from August 17-19, with 12 hours of classroom training and 3 hours of follow-up, on-line training. Participants will receive a certificate of completion for “Research Ethics/ Human Subjects Protections and Cultural Competence Training”. On-campus lodging will be provided for participants not residing in the Syracuse area; lunch will be provided for all participants.
Applications: To apply, please send the following three items to <[email protected]>: (i) a cover letter explaining your interest in participating in the workshop, (ii) a one-page research abstract, and (iii) a résumé with contact information for both you and your advisor. Deadline: 5:00 pm, EDT, May 13, 2011. For further information, please contact: Drs. Dianne Quigley <[email protected]> or David Sonnenfeld <[email protected]>.
