PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (May 24, 2021) – This spring, the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) hosted its first Conference for Interdisciplinary Student Research (CISR). Held virtually in place of what would have been the 16th Annual Research Symposium, CISR brought together students from various disciplines at PVAMU under the conference theme, “Globalized Governance: Improving Community Well-being and Trust.”
“There were also participants from the University of Miami, Howard University, Dillard University, Spelman College, Hampton University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology (Uganda),” said Susan Frazier-Kouassi, Ph.D., one of the organizers of the event and director of the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center (TJCPC).
Originally a vehicle by which doctoral students in psychology and justice studies presented their research, the Annual Research Symposium had gradually grown to encompass the work of students in many different departments.
“Last year, we had almost 180 students presenting from all of the colleges,” said Frazier-Kouassi, who describes the symposium as a “service provided to the community.” With CISR, the TJCPC is embracing the expanded scope of the symposium in recent years while trying to encourage more direct problem solving among presenters from different departments.
“The goal was to really try to encourage collaboration across disciplines,” said Frazier-Kouassi, who said the planning committee included members from PVAMU’s Colleges of Agriculture & Human Sciences, Education, Nursing, Juvenile Justice and Psychology, and Arts and Sciences, as well as the Honors Program and the Office of Research & Innovation. “I don’t think we hit it completely, but we did get more students from the social sciences and education, which are typically underrepresented at these conferences.”
The program produced by Frazier-Kouassi and her “tremendous” working committee speaks to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other critical issues that “require an interdisciplinary response.”
“This idea is grounded in the humanities, education, and behavioral and social sciences to understand the human impact and offer durable solutions,” she said.
Research presented by graduate and undergraduate students explored police reform, food security, institutional systemic racism, disaster relief, climate change, educational disparities and inequities, cybersecurity issues, public health, and a host of other matters, as the program listed.
To support future collaboration and problem solving of today’s issues, Frazier-Kouassi has begun working with Stella Smith, Ph.D., associate director of PVAMU’s Minority Achievement, Creativity and High-Ability (MACH-III) Center. They are putting together a two-day institute focusing only on social justice research. Called the CISR Emerging Social Justice Scholars Summer Institute, the institute would invite students who presented at CISR to bring qualitative and quantitative research to bear on social justice issues as a way of pointing toward real-world solutions.
Smith stated, “The MACH-III Center is excited to partner with Dr. Frazier-Kouassi and the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center to host this innovative social justice research institute. At this critical time in our nation’s history, it is imperative that we conduct research from a social justice perspective and share that research in innovative ways. This institute will provide training and resources to achieve both of these goals.”
“I think the opportunities exist; we just have to build them,” Frazier-Kouassi said. “That’s one objective we have with a summer program, to have students look at common problems from different disciplines.”
She continued, “On the one hand, we want to prepare students to enter the workforce. On the other hand, the workforce is changing so rapidly that you need students who can take different perspectives. We’re still training students very narrowly, and with a more dynamic workforce, we need more adaptive and critical thinkers to respond to the evolving needs of the workforce.”
Students interested in applying for the CISR Emerging Social Justice Scholars Summer Institute can access the application here.
By Andrew Cohen
-PVAMU-