1. Summer Workshop for Graduate Students: Research Ethics and Cultural Competence in Environmental Science, Engineering and Related Fields*

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 
August 17-19, 2011

Who and Where: 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.**

Workshop Benefits:

• Learn New Research Models: If you are a graduate student interested in improving research methods with research models adapted to community needs and cultural sensitivity, this workshop will provide a review of multiple case studies with new approaches to research design, methods and outcomes that also reflect various ethical approaches to research (principilism, distributive justice, ethics of care, virtue- and community-based approaches).
• Institutional Review Board (IRB) Application Training: If you are planning to conduct field-based environmental research for your dissertation or thesis work, and you need or desire training on protection of human subjects, including for Institutional Review Board (IRB) applications, this workshop will provide guidance and preparatory training for those applications.
• Cultural Diversity/ Sensitivity Training: Research approaches will be assessed to ensure that exploitation, community stigma harms and culturally-inappropriate practices can be prevented. Communities and cultural groups increasingly require that research activities produce beneficial change and positive outcomes to their local community settings. Guidance from ethical theories and international recommendations will be reviewed for use in implementation.
• Certificate of Completion: Students completing 15 hours of training will receive a Certificate of Completion for Research Ethics and Cultural Competence/ Diversity Training. This can be included on CVs to indicate gaining of much-needed professional skills/ expertise that can be shared with others. Students will have access to online resources in research ethics and cultural diversity from the NEEP Website and Blackboard Course Pages.

Schedule: The workshop will be held from August 17-19, with 12 hours of classroom training and 3 hours of follow-up, on-line training. On-campus lodging will be provided for up to ten participants not residing in the Syracuse area; lunch will be provided for all participants. Note: If you are interested in segments of this training but cannot attend the full session, please contact us.

Further Information: Please contact Dianne Quigley or David Sonnenfeld.

* Funded by NSF Ethics Education in Science and Engineering Grant #GEO-1032754, Dianne Quigley, PI; David A. Sonnenfeld and Phil Brown, co-PIs.

** PhD and masters students in Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies, and related fields from SUNY-ESF, Syracuse University, Upstate Medical University, Cornell University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, Binghamton University, Colgate University, Clarkson University, University of Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and other upstate New York institutions are invited to apply.

 

2. Research Ethics and Cultural Competence Training for Community-based Studies

*Part of the Association for Environmental Studies and Science's "Confronting Complexity" Conference: June 23-26, 2011.  

Who and when: Presented and coordinated by Dianne Quigley, this afternoon workshop was held from 1:00-4:30 p.m. This event was hosted by the University of Vermont.

Workshop Description: Many environmental research projects take place in communities with diverse cultural groups that have particular histories, traditions, group processes, and research experiences that have not been well served by traditional research ethics and IRB processes. Previous harms have occurred when graduate students have not been well trained in community-based research ethics. Research exploitation and stigmatization are grave concerns for culturally-diverse communities. Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian Americans, and other culturally-diverse, resource-poor communities in US and international settings have experienced forms of exploitation whereby research subjects are recruited through deception, authoritative persuasion or coercion. Native American tribal communities complain that participating in research too often does not provide benefits or results to the community. Economically disadvantaged groups whose decision-making about informed participation in research projects may be impaired by low literacy, a conditioned submission to authority or financial need, are at particular risk for exploitation. 

To help prevent harm and to prepare graduate students and researchers for engagement with diverse cultural groups, the Northeast Ethics Education Partnership (NEEP), an NSF-funded training initiative between SUNY-ESF and Brown University project has developed training modules combining the skills learning of cultural competence with human subjects protections. Cultural Competence is a set of academic and interpersonal skills that allow individuals to increase their understandings and appreciation of cultural differences and similarities within, among and between groups. This requires a willingness to draw on community-based values, traditions and customs, and to work with knowledgeable persons from the community to develop focused interventions and communications.

In this workshop we will review new research protections for place-based communities and cultural groups and discuss the NEEP training objectives. We will share curriculum for graduate student mentoring programs, preview a faculty mentoring program with web-based resources, and examine sample case studies and digital training slides. Workshop participants will become aware of how barriers of racial stereotypes, ethnocentric approaches and inappropriate communication styles can impede respect for persons and justice. We will look at new approaches to gaining informed consent with cultural groups that account for communal values and oral traditions while meeting the requirements of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).  Workshop participants will review informed consent theory/practices from research ethics texts and case study reports. We will also demonstrate how these traditional rules can be applied in culturally-complex settings.