This blog is reprinted with permission from the Boston Area Research Initiative.

The Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI), in conjunction with URBAN.Boston, hosted an event at Codman Square Health Center asking the question, “How can urban researchers engage communities for social change?”

The evening was structured to foster conversation between researchers and community members and organizations. The night began with brief presentations by five graduate students from local universities who had received research seed grants from BARI. They then discussed the nature of research in local communities and responded to audience questions on a panel moderated by BARI Co-Director Dan O’Brien. The night concluded with a breakout session that further explored these themes, led by URBAN.Boston Co-Director Michael Johnson, faculty at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School.

The featured graduate students included Caitlin Carey & Marija Bingulac, PhD candidates in public policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston; Andrew Trlica, a PhD student in Boston University’s Department of Earth and Environment; Liana Tuller, a PhD candidate in Northeastern University’s Department of Sociology; and Sandeep Jani, a PhD student in the Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies.

Read the full story posted on the BARI website.