Session: Arts-Based Research Methods As Tools for Healing and Resistance (Society for Social Work and Research 30th Annual Conference Anniversary)

Social work researchers are tasked with contributing to high quality research that advances racial, social, economic, and environmental justice (NASW, 2021). In our current sociopolitical climate marked by rampant injustice, human rights violations, and state sanctioned discrimination, this mandate is even more critical. Our research methods, from our questions and data collection strategies to how we engage with minoritized populations and our thoughtful dissemination of findings, must consider this current environment and how we can both create impactful research and center the experiences of individuals at the margins. As social work scholars at the margins of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability, and immigration status (to name a few), we aim for our research to create processes that support individuals and create opportunities to challenge systemic oppression.

It is with this goal and our shared values of collective liberation in mind that we organize this symposium on the use of arts-based research methods to promote individual healing from and collective resistance to oppression. Arts-based research methods, such as poetic inquiry (Faulkner, 2019), photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1997), a/r/tography (Irwin, 2012), and critical geography (Author, 2022), can serve as powerful tools to disrupt traditional academic conventions, amplify minoritized voices, challenge stigma (Author et al., 2021; Author et al., 2024; Bentwich & Gilbey, 2017), and resist oppressive systems (Strega & Brown, 2015). Additionally, arts-based research methods allow for the production of meaningful, impactful findings while also creating equity in the research process.

In this symposium, we will present four different arts-based research projects that draw on a range of methodologies, populations, and topic areas. Presenters will attend to various ways in which social work scholars can engage the arts to promote healing and enact resistance in the face of systemic oppression. The first presentation will describe how the participatory action method of photovoice can be grounded in critical action to identify and address anti-Black racism in predominantly white universities. The second presentation will discuss a socially engaged art exhibit that aimed to reduce bias toward LGBTQ+ Latine communities in Central Texas. The third presentation will share a project on art as testimony for Black femme doctoral students as they collectively reflected on their professionalization. Finally, the fourth presentation will share the collective poetic inquiry process and outcome of a group of LGBTQ+ and allied social work faculty’s experiences related to the new federal administration. Notably, following the presentations and prior to audience discussion, the symposium presenters will facilitate an arts-based project with the audience to demonstrate the utility of these methods for social work research. Discussion questions for participants may include:

1. In what ways can arts-based research serve as both a tool for healing and a catalyst for activism within marginalized groups? 2. How can arts-based research ensure that community voices are centered and respected throughout the research process? 3. What considerations and/or ethical responsibilities do researchers have to build reciprocal relationships with the communities they engage?