Elective Courses - Graduate Certificate in Participatory Research

Spring 2025 Electives

To qualify as a GCPR elective, a course must have a significant participatory research component and/or significant content addressing the theory, method or practice of participatory research. In addition to the courses listed below, independent studies with a significant focus on participatory theory or methods may also qualify as electives. Please contact the Curriculum Chair (Sara Smith, shsmith1@email.unc.edu) and Advising Chair (Dane Emmerling, dane.emmerling@unc.edu), for formal approval of particular courses. Students are also encouraged to consult the list of past electives in planning their coursework, as departmental course offerings sometimes change after the website has been published and elective-qualified classes may be offered without being listed here.

RELI 524. Ethnographic Approaches to Contemporary Religion. 3 Credits. (Dr. Lauren Leve).

Tuesdays 2:00pm – 4:50pm, Murphey Hall Room 105
Critical exploration of exemplary contemporary ethnographies of religion focusing on the ways that ethnographic methods and writing styles shape knowledge of religious and cultural life in various traditions and parts of the world. Topics considered include fieldwork, ethics, theoretical and/or narrative strategies, and the challenges of interpreting and representing social and religious life. While the organizing focus for the course will be religion, we will also read texts that do not consider that theme but are nonetheless exemplary for their authors’ theoretical, methodological, and/or rhetorical choices. Any student planning or considering an ethnographic project will find multiple points of engagement/traction in the material and discussions. Decolonial approaches and participatory research methods will be among the strategies analyzed and discussed.

SOWO 490. Economic Justice and Financial Coaching. 2.5 Credit (3 possible). (Dr. Allison C. De Marco).

Wednesdays 3:00pm – 4:30pm, plus time with community partners, Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building Room 102
For the last decade the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) has partnered with the School of Social Work to offer a service learning course on economic justice and financial coaching. Students have the opportunity to work with CEF and learn more about economic justice, structural racism, and financial systems. The co-instructor is a person with lived experience of homelessness who leads CEF. As part of the course, students work directly with CEF’s members or in other ways, such as collecting data and developing research protocols. Students also complete a team racial equity assessment in consultation with a local elected official on a program or policy typically related to affordable housing and homelessness.

ANTH/FOLK 860. Art of Enthography. 3 Credits. (Dr. Glen Hinson).

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00pm – 3:15pm, Greenlaw Hall Room 526A
This graduate seminar explores the practice and ethics of ethnography, inviting students to conduct semester-long ethnographic projects in collaboration with the community with which they’ve chosen to work. It’s as much a course about practice as it is about the principles behind that practice. A field-based exploration of the pragmatic, ethical, and theoretical dimensions of ethnographic research, addressing issues of experience, aesthetics, authority, and worldview through the lens of cultural encounter.

HBEH 710. Community Capacity, Competence, and Power. 3 Credits. (Dr. Alexandra Lightfoot).

Thursdays, 12:30pm – 3:15pm, Rosenau Hall Room 332
The nature and delineation of participatory action research and its relevance to concepts, principles, and practices of community empowerment. Students learn methods (such as photovoice) through learning projects.