Leverage curiosity to foster effective partnerships
August 25, 2023
Speaker
Dr. Erica Machulak, Founder, Hikma
When scholars and practitioners build new partnerships, the questions we ask can matter more than the answers we give. This webinar offers direct, targeted advice to transform promising connections into lasting partnerships by asking generative questions. But what are generative questions? Generative questions spark curiosity and ‘generate’ deeper understanding that can lead to meaningful engagement. These types of questions are rooted in the assumption that we and our collaborators bring complementary strengths to the table.
In this presentation, Erica Machulak, founder of Hikma, will present three questions that serve to demonstrate respect, discover shared interests, and identify logistical considerations. While these questions do not encompass all possible generative questions, they have been selected to highlight how to access different types of knowledge. The questions and advice provided will enable you to build trust with collaborators, discover points of shared interest, and lay the groundwork for mutually compelling and feasible projects.
After this webinar, the audience will be able to:
- Identify three generative questions to help build trust and common ground.
- Foster dialogue with partners and collaborators across sectors.
- Leverage curiosity to design effective projects and programs.
Speaker
Erica Machulak, PhD, is the founder and lead facilitator of Hikma, a social impact startup with a mission to mobilize scholarship for the public good through consulting, capacity building and storytelling. She specializes in supporting cross-sector and cross-disciplinary partnership networks to establish governance structures, determine shared practices, design feasible projects, and communicate effectively about their work. Over the past two years, Hikma clients have secured $6M+ in research funding, informed new policies, and published their work in media outlets such as Forbes and the CBC.
As a writer, editor and facilitator, Erica believes that the world needs to hear more from people who resist easy answers. Since completing her dissertation on medieval English literature, Erica has written articles for Inside Higher Ed, Intellect Ltd, and Humanities, the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (BA), the University of Oxford (MSt.) and the University of Notre Dame (PhD).
Upcoming webinar
Anu Radha Verma and Dr. Nathan Lachowsky
Date
May 24, 2024
Community-based research and open science: lessons learned
In 2024, KT Connects is focusing on open science — the practice of making scientific inputs, outputs, and processes freely available to all with minimal restrictions. Learn more
Webinar summary
Friday, May 24
12 – 1 p.m. PST
Open science and community-based research are complementary. They both stem from the recognition of needed change to the ‘status quo’, and that requires collective efforts. For 2S/LGBTQQIA+ health research, community-based approaches to research are vitally important. They bring to life the motto “nothing about us without us” (coined by disability rights activists).
This month’s guest speakers are Dr. Nathan Lachowsky from the University of Victoria and Anu Radha Verma from the Community-Based Research Centre (www.cbrc.net). The centre promotes the health of people of diverse sexualities and genders through research and intervention development. In this presentation, Nathan and Anu Radha will share how community-based research is an example of open science in practice – through case studies of learnings, which cover lessons from both success and failure.
Learning objectives
After this webinar, the audience will be able to:
- Identify principles for community-based research that relate to 2S/LGBTQQIA+ communities.
- Describe how open science and community-based research are complementary approaches.
- Understand the successes and challenges of implementing community-based research with and for 2S/LGBTQQIA+ communities.
Speaker bio
Nathan Lachowsky (he/him) is an uninvited settler researcher of Ukrainian and British descent. He is an associate professor in the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria and research director at the Community-Based Research Centre. Championing interdisciplinary and community-based approaches, he has conducted population health research with sexual and gender-minoritized communities – particularly Indigenous Two-Spirit and Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, Transgender, and Queer people across Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand. His research focuses on social and behavioural epidemiology. and the importance of developing and analyzing mixed methods data to inform public health practice, health service provision, interventions and policy.
Anu Radha Verma (she/her) is an associate director of research at the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC). Her work at CBRC has been focused on chronic health, conversion practices, anti-racism, and gender-based violence. Anu Radha has lived and worked in both so-called Canada and India, focuses on social justice issues relating to the environment, health, gender and sexuality, poverty, youth, migration, disability and more. She is a queer, diasporic woman of colour with complex connections to ‘South Asia’, a mad-identified survivor, and navigates chronic fatigue while living on the Treaty and Traditional Territory of the Mississauga’s of the Credit. Outside of CBRC, she is a curator, organizes with a grassroots QTBIPOC group, and is engaged in archival work documenting histories of activism in the suburbs.