Information on the English speaking Lecturers

Linking local knowledge with universal human rights through Participatory Action research: Experiences from International Social Work

This presentation explores how Participatory Action Research (PAR) can serve as a bridge between local knowledge systems and the universal framework of human rights within the field of international social work. Drawing on empirical case studies and their protagonists from Mozambique, the Greece–Turkey border region, and Germany, the presentation examines how participatory and context-sensitive methodologies such as PhotoVoice and Future Creating Workshops can both challenge and enrich dominant human rights discourses.

Through collaborative inquiry with communities facing social exclusion, displacement, and structural inequalities, the research highlights the ways in which local actors and those engaging with them reinterpret and operationalize human rights principles in diverse cultural and political contexts. The Mozambique case focuses on community-led initiatives for social protection of displaced people; the Greece–Turkey case involves social work students’ views and actions about the dangerous borderland; and the German example reflects on refugee's perceptions and experiences of their integration in a Bavarian urban setting.

The presentation argues that integrating PAR strategies into international social work practice fosters a more dialogical and decolonial understanding of human rights, one that values local epistemologies as sources of legitimate knowledge and transformative potential. Ultimately, it calls for a rethinking of social work’s global mission toward approaches that are co-created, reflexive, and grounded in the lived realities of the people most affected by social injustice.

Dr. Eric Kyere is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Adjunct Professor of Africana Studies at Indiana University. Eric is a transdisciplinary scholar and draws on social science and humanities to integrate historical data with social science research methods. He applies collective memory and historical and structural perspectives to explore how we collectively embody and enact unjust and harmful practices of our collective past to (re)produce hierarchy-based epistemic and affective structures that alter our shared humanity to sustain inequalities. His work also contributes to practices of epistemic and relational repair through reinterpretation of our histories toward collective efforts to engage in reparative future. That is a future where structures and practices of violence rooted in slavery and colonial capital imaginaries are addressed for the collective. Such collective rethink is critical to reconstruct futures that support healthy relations with the self, the collective, and the natural environment in ways that support our thriving together. Dr. Kyere’s transatlantic work and experiences have shown that when contextual distinctions are accounted for, the way slavery and colonialism, and other forms of past violence accumulate into our present and are projected into the future implicates all of us, beyond victims and perpetrator binaries, but in differentiated ways. Therefore, our collective understanding of the relations among slavery, colonialism and ongoing formation of whiteness relative to epistemology and our shared humanity is essential to collectively re-construct our futures in reparative fashion.

• This section will introduce historical and structural perspectives to the conceptualization of human rights and how it is sustained in today’s practice.

• Cultural mechanisms for establishing and perpetuating human differentiation and implications will be discussed.

• Presenters will also offer diverse perspectives on the dilemmas surrounding human rights discourse, emphasizing the need to critically examine the epistemic and affective resources for nurturing human possibilities for the collective and the planet.

Stephanie Lyons, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of Practicum Education leads Indiana University School of Social Work’s (IUSSW) implementation of practicum education curricula, ensuring integration between classroom and practice settings, and compliance with policies and CSWE standards. Stephanie is pursuing her PhD in Social Work with a research interest in organizational leadership. Prior to IUSSW, Stephanie held leadership positions in regional and national, youth and family serving organizations.

1. This section will introduce historical and structural perspectives to the conceptualization of human rights and how it is sustained in today’s practice.

2. Cultural mechanisms for establishing and perpetuating human differentiation and implications will be discussed.

3. Presenters will also offer diverse perspectives on the dilemmas surrounding human rights discourse, emphasizing the need to critically examine the epistemic and affective resources for nurturing human possibilities for the collective and the planet.