Advanced Legal Research: Community-Based Research Lab

This course will introduce students to advanced legal research for use in policy advocacy, utilizing Participatory Action Research, a community-based relational research model utilized in the social sciences, as a basis for community lawyering, advocacy, and organizing. Students will have an opportunity to see community-based research in action, supporting the Professor in conducting research based upon collaboration with community partners. Students will have real-world examples from which to identify a primary need, challenge, or opportunity, from which to develop a research plan. Community leaders and advocates often struggle to identify the legal and regulatory barriers, and opportunities, related to their goals. Students will learn how to identify the legal and regulatory components of the identified topic, conduct research, and help design an advocacy strategy and theory of change. This lab will teach students how to engage in democratic change processes, apply legal skills to community-based problems, and collaboratively design research and advocacy strategies. Students completing the course earn three experiential learning credits. Instructor permission required.