Abstract

This article describes and demonstrates a methodology for research justice through what I call “homegrown” research methodologies, or methods that are emergent from and responsive to community needs. While academics develop, study, and deploy research methods that are ethical and rigorous, they often don’t capture the complex, lived realities of participants’ lives. Research justice, in contrast, directly responds to community needs as identified by the community; centers community members as experts in the research process; and “creates, maintains, and engages” experiential, spiritual, cultural, and mainstream knowledges of community members (Jolivétte, Research Justice 1). I develop and articulate a theoretical approach for research justice to show how universities can contribute to communities by conducting ethical, useful, and justice-oriented research.