Mariama M. Changamire Shaw

Welcome!

I have collected a bit of information here that may interest you. Whether you share my research intrigues, wish to let me know about an amazing social justice or career opportunity, or simply wish to discuss engaging pedagogy, I look forward to connecting with you.

If you find useful resources here, consider leaving one behind for me to share further by sending me an e-mail. I appreciate inter-disciplinarity and the richness of the conversation it promises as we all see things through very different lenses. Diversity is our strength.

In the sidebar you will find links for the site, my contact information, and links to key supporters in the quest for social justice education and advocacy. All materials available in the site are pdf. files, you will need Acrobat Reader to view them. Get it here now!

Cheers!

Research Interests

I am dedicated to the study of global linguistic survival strategies, recasting these strategies as tools of empowerment for the challenges of our expanding global economy.  Believing that exposing linguistic hegemony is critical to the liberation and survival of our most underserved and disenfranchised world citizens, I remain open to historic and dynamic possibilities of language and culture, scaffolding strengths revealed in the communicative identities presented.  

The communication discipline extends explanatory frameworks for the reach of power and ideology in the structure of human communities and their linguistic and performed creative production.  I am interested in counter narratives to dominant ideologies and themes, and exposing contradictions and policies incongruent to state action.

Ultimately, I aim to enlarge liberatory spaces and develop tools to render within these spaces.  This social justice project is pertinent to the communities everywhere difference is read as deficit, which leads to disparities in every aspect of life.  The practical application of my research circumvents long-standing oppression. Other areas of interest include the pragmatic voices of women of color and the violence of silences in our communities with regard to gendered violence, incest, and rape, highlighting notions of dominance and power.

Studying personal and group abuse...

The 29 Hartford youth in The Summer Youth Research Institute (SYRI) of the Institute for Community Research taught me plenty about being courageous in the midst of chaos. Even though they were dealing with schoolmates being shot in the streets, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and the general decay of their neighborhoods and places of learning, they identified a topic that all 29 of them could agree on for their summer research project. This, in itself, was an amazing feat for 16 -18 year old youth with so many harrowing moving variables in their lives.

And we studied personal and group abuse…

Teamed with four seasoned researchers in this Youth Participatory Action Research Project, I supported junior researchers who hypothesized that group violence stemmed from personal violence experienced by the hand of another or oneself. They identified the path of messages feeding into normalizing discourses for the progression of personal to group abuse and mapped known spaces in their communities where one would most likely experience personal, and ultimately, group abuse.

Identifying cutting, drug and alcohol abuse, and eating disorders, the research teams set about investigating their topic of interest using a myriad of methodologies. 

In groups of nine, the junior researchers were introduced to multiple research methods for approaching their chosen topic, with each team deploying one method except for my team, which learned and implemented two methods that included instruction in a qualitative analysis software program. I instructed nine youth researchers in Interviewing and Pile Sorting methodologies and guided them through analysis and presentation of their findings.

The remaining teams learned and utilized quantitative data rendering with SPSS, developing a survey instrument for which they secured over 30 respondents, and visual data rendering using PhotoVoice of built spaces in their communities. Ultimately, I capped their summer experience with a visit to the UMass campus and engaged them in discussions about the great possibility of seeing them there.

It was a wonderful experience working with ICR staff who smoothed out the rough spaces and taught me so much. I've not encountered a group of researchers and administrators so very committed to their communities and the ethical concerns of the research they are engaging. ICR stands with few as a true community research and advocacy agency engaging the community to identify concerns and address them, as we did that summer.

If you are interested in learning more about the project, PAR, YPAR, etc., one of my team researchers completed a M. A. Thesis on just that.