Introduction to Community Engaged Research (UNC-CH)

POLI 225 (previously POLI 290) is a course designed to help students learn about and conduct research in the service of communities. This course follows in the footsteps of a course developed by Prof. Cornell William Brooks at the Harvard Kennedy School, for which I served as a teaching assistant during my graduate studies, and who showed me the power of using research as a force for positive change.

The course is divided into three parts. In part one, students learn how to center community needs as the catalyst and motivation for research. In part two, community partners come to class share their experiences, discuss the issues facing their community, and offer a research need. In part three of the course, students work to complete the research need.

I have put this webpage together to serve as a repository of the work we have created in the class.

SPRING 2026

During the Spring 2026 semester, POLI 225 students worked with three community partners. With their permission, I have provided links to the final reports:

• Advancement Project (Lucas Dunn, Chloe Johnson, Sergio Martinez, Sada Maryanov, Evelin Patricio Zuluaga, and Kyla Sheedy-Goff).

  • A report on the history of school policing in North Carolina.

• Blueprint NC (Jaya Nadella, Aamiran Yala, Akye Nixon-McCray, and Morgan Weber).

  • A report on legislation for working people in North Carolina.

• North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (Angela Ortiz-Green, Sarah Allison, and Luis Valdivia Diego).

  • A report on pre-regulatory landfills in North Carolina.