Liberation Social & Community Psychology

Psychology 80103 (25593)

WSCP 81000 0 (25877)

Roderick Watts, Professor

of Psychology and Social Welfare
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
& The Social Welfare Program, Silberman School of Social Work
rwatts@gc.cuny.edu

Syllabus Version September 8, 2014

With Major Contributions from Students in the Class
Alternative Course Syllabus for
Liberation Social and Community Psychology

This Planning Document is an integration of two sets of ideas. Rods ideas, in this
typeface, were influenced by his understanding of summertime discussions with
students in addition to his own. The second set is from a document written by a
subgroup of the students involved in the summer discussion they had at Rods home.
The names of the student and the title of their document are above, just below the
boxed course information. You can distinguish their contributions to the course by
the typeface in their title.
Everything in the student documentwithout exception and unchangedhas been
integrated into the document that follows. Overlapping reading recommendations are
highlighted. To maintain the integrity of the student document, It appears in its
original form at the end of the document.

Overview
This survey course draws from multiple disciplines and emancipatory perspectives. The
readings are international with an emphasis on scholars from disenfranchised groups
or with origins in the global south. The aim is to bring together, critique and
discuss theory and research through the lens of action for social-cultural justice
and equality.
Potential topics include: critical consciousness, social/cultural/racial identities,
(internalized) oppression, community-organizing, ideologies of superiority (theisms
)empowerment, sociopolitical development, the psychology of colonialism,
emancipatory social-psychological interventions, healing-treatment practices in LP
and empowerment. Participatory action-research will be at the center of the courses
coverage of research methodology. Authentic action-reflection is part of classroom
dialog and assignments, which benefits from an action component that occurs outside
the classroom. Thus, it is a course requirement that students participate in an
1

action experience outside of the classroom that is relevant to the course

material.

Course Overview
This survey course draws from multiple disciplines and emancipatory perspectives with an
emphasis on non-traditional approaches to pedagogy. There exists a long history in the
areas of social science and in psychology of academic violence - research practices based
in racism, theories used to influence harmful social policy, testing on disenfranchised
communities and the systematic exclusion of people of color, women, LGBTQ, and others
from academic conversations, spheres, and job positions. This course looks to practice
something wholly different, working not only to reclaim a community psychology in a
theoretical sense, but also to imagine and practice - in the class, through readings, in
scholarly relationships - a psychology that works to liberate, de-colonize, and create
change for communities and for those scholars that have been historically excluded and
whose knowledge has been devalued. Therefore, this course will ask participants to think
critically, act critically, and come prepared with a project that pushes forward theories and
practices of community psychology.
Ultimately, the aims of this course are to break apart from the Europeanized version of
learning (i.e., institutionalized in classrooms, academic essays/papers) by rejecting the
traditional, and to discuss, analyze, and explore the importance of local community
knowledge, research and actions for social cultural justice and equality across a range of
activism projects.
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the course is to engage in a pedagogical praxis of de-colonization. This requires the
courses participants to imagine and implement alternative strategies for recognizing wisdom
produced by non-academics, as well as developing alternative strategies for seeking and creating
knowledge.
This includes but is not limited to:
Academic/Project Support: Time and space to offer critical feedback and support one another, to
workshop research/community ideas/actions. Students should be prepared to share their projects
with peers, being able to speak to theoretical questions, practical concerns, relationship to
application/movement building/critical praxis, etc.
Skills Building and Navigating the PhD: To gain insight on grant writing to raise funds for
community specific projects, skill based learning (i.e., non traditional focus groups, or how to
interrupt oppression/violence we encounter in our work), potential consulting positions, and
strategies for utilizing your PhD outside the academy (i.e., community organizing).
Healing and Community Support: to share testimonies/struggles/victories encountered on the
journey towards, during, and beyond the PhD, to laugh and to play with peers, to have a safe space
2

to envision a new type of critical scholarship, healthy academic lives, and heal from experiences
around the occupying marginalized identities within the academy.
Learning Across Community Spaces/Activism Projects: To break out of the confines of a
traditional academic setting. To avoid/escape the Graduate Center and classroom, to engage in
learning across community projects, through workshop discussions, artifacts and video sharing,
site/community specific field trips and course gatherings/trips to culturally relevant museums
and community events.
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this course is not to summarily condemn all of what you`ve been exposed to
in your schooling to date, dismissing it all as an effort to reshape you into a cog in the
dehumanization machine called oppression. Rather that throw out the baby with the bath water,
we will hold on to the baby and raise it on our own terms. This requires thoughtful creativity
as well as critique, along with the ability to integrate what ought to be retained with
important ideas that are absent.
1. Demonstrate an understanding of multiple scholarly and practical emancipatory
perspectives from a range of contexts and show your ability to critique those you find
most compelling.
2. Using existing scholarly knowledge, formulate your own multidisciplinary/
transdisciplinary perspective on social liberation theory that addresses issues relevant
to your future aspirations.
3. Engage and in skill-based action or activism project (that involves more than writing)
during the semester that provides an opportunity to make use of knowledge related to #2
above.
4. Produce a multi-medium product that effectively communicates your project activities and
its underlying ideas to a target group of your choice.

PART I Prelude to Syllabus Discussion

Definitions
Draft definition of terms
<

Liberation and Social Justice

Liberation in a Nutshell: Live and let live, Cole Porter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d43nagVqbU

Activism, Scholar Activist, Scholarly

< Liberation Psychology, Liberation Studies
< The tasks: (1) A commitment to, and structure for cocreating this course; (2) reworking the Initial Course
Framework (Part II) and the draft syllabus; (3) setting
guidelines for course pedagogy
< What is the Good Life (lineage, person, family,
community, municipality, province, nation, culture, and
world?)
<

Process

Requires a commitment to, and taking on responsibilities for course co-creation

Relational Features
3

<

From values to norms on: sharing, brainstorming, teaching, learning, empowering,

collaborating, risk-taking, support, respect, constructive conflict, diversity
mindedness, enforcing and promoting norms

Tasks:
Major Topic Areas
< General pedagogy
Specific Topical Materials
Guest Speakers
Field Trips
<

Setting Course Requirements

Tangible Products (Objective #4)
Approval criteria for student projects
< Class or Community Presentations (via fieldtrips)
< Grading Rubrics
< Due Dates
<
<

Decision-Making
Consensus and Voting
s exercise of authority
< Professor
<

Rod
s long-list of course topics
and sub-topic areas for discussion purposes
Far too much to cover, but it will be good for conversation

(in alpha order within categories)

Liberation: What is the Good Life?

Defining the good life (personal and collective, rights and responsibilities)
Perspectives: Philosophical, United Nations, Wisdom Traditions, Law, Ethics, etc.

Systems and Ideologies of Oppression (these overlap)

Colonialism and Imperialism

Economic Tyranny
Governmental Tyranny
Neoliberalism
Slavery and Trafficking
The Isms
Wisdom-Tradition Related Tyranny:
o Religious
o Scientific (e.g., eugenics, psych
and medical)

Macro Liberation Strategies (these overlap)

Armed Struggle and sabotage, etc.

Electoral Politics
Migration/Immigration
Movement Politics, Community Organizing and Empowerment
4

Neo-Separatism
Policy Advocacy
Social Entrepreneurship
Revolution

Micro Liberation Tactics (interrelated)

Collaboration, Community, and Coalition-building

Education, Empowerment, and Critical Consciousness
Financial Literacy and collective wealth-building
Institution-Building
PAR and other participatory activities where research is a principal component
Psychological Interventions
Research-Related (nominally participative)
Subversion

Skill Sets for Activists

Administration and project management
Campaign and direct action strategy and planning
Finding, assessing, and summarizing research
Fundraising
Group facilitation, active listening, and counseling
Leadership development and mentoring
Participatory Action Research (PAR)
Presentation and public speaking (for the three audiences
below)
Training
Writing skills appropriate for people with two or three of these audiences:
o A tenth grade education
o A college education (includes most grant writing)
o Scholarly pretensions

Additional Essential Ideas

1.
2.
3.
4.

Culture and Worldview

Decolonization
Identity Politics and Ideology
Identity/consciousness-related analysis: critical race and queer theory, feminism,
Marxism, capitalism, socialism, Africentrism, nationalism, etc.
5. Indigenous and Aboriginal
6. Internalized Oppression
7. Intersectionality and Diversity
8. Power
9. Privilege and Notions of Supremacy
10. Propaganda, Indoctrination, Dogmatism, Demagoguery
11. Reflexivity
12. Spirituality
13. Sustainability
14. Transformation
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15. Well-being, Trauma, Pathology

Many readings below can be found in the Course Library:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fia9kg5till7dsr/AACU2hkCgcybPSWG5A7hMfD7a?dl=0
Levine, B (2009). Liberation Psychology for the U.S.:Are we too demoralized to protest ? Z Magazine. (he also wrote a more
hopeful article: Toward a Lib. Psy)

Please Read the items in red below by the 2nd class meeting.
I suggest you read them in the order shown:
hooks, b. (2010). Teaching critical thinking. NY: Routledge. Pages 728; 5558; 37
47.
< Freire, P. (1974). Education for a Critical Consciousness. NY: Continuum. Pages 146151.
< Postman N., & Weingartner, C. (1969). Teaching as a subversive activity. Chapter on
the Inquiry Method. NY: Delta Books. Pages 915; 2538.
< Keane (Ed). -The Learning Circle in Culture Change.pdf
<

Are some topics missing or underrepresented?

1. Theory and practice of privilege-reduction, racial supremacy, and disempowerment
2. Economic justice and alternative economic practices
3. Readings with a singular focus on social power
4. Theoretical perspectives on targeting social policy as a liberation strategy
5. Methods for assessing/measuring liberation, privilege, internalized oppression,

critical consciousness, etc.

6. Strategies and Role models for action scholarship
7. Intervening in our own back yard*: transforming U.S./Western psychology through:
8. Paradigm change: Afuape, T (2012). African and African heritage contributions to Liberation
Psychology. ICP Conf, Barcelona; Uichol K.(2000). Indigenous, cultural, and cross-cultural psychology: A
theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological analysis. Asian Journal of Social Psychology,3, 265287.

9. Creation of settings: Education for Liberation Network (www.edliberation.org); English language

Lib.Psych. Network (http://libpsy.org)

10. Sufficient diversity in course materials(silenced voices and ideas)

11. Organization development interventions to strengthen social-justice organizations:
Capacity-building, management consultation, transformative leadership development, technical assistance,
program evaluation, wellness and stress management programs, opportunities for scholarship

DRAFT COURSE SCHEDULE

To be discussed...

Course Schedule
Bi-Weekly meetings (see course calendar below)

READINGS
There are no required readings. However, students can engage with various texts and discuss
during reflections.

Potential Shared Reading List:

Moraga, C. (Ed.). (1981). This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color (pp. 3540). Watertown, MA: Persephone Press.
Radical Poetry

Rod
s Text Book Suggestions
While we are deciding on the readings we will read from these
1. Montero, M. & Sonn, C.C. (2009) (eds.). Psychology of liberation: Theory and
applications. New York, NY: Springer.
2. Mullaly (2010). Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege, 2nd Ed. New York:
Oxford University Press
3. Nelson, G. and Prilleltensky, I. (2005) (Eds.) Community psychology: in pursuit of
liberation and well-being. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
4. Watkins, M., & Shulman, H. (2008). Toward psychologies of liberation. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan.

BIG LIST OF READINGS

From a previous class, ignore instructions

: = Highly Recommended by Rod; 4 = Recommended

PART III Introduction and Core Ideas: Read the items in red by the 3nd class meeting,
unless we make a decision to do otherwise.
: TEXT1: Mark Burton and Carolyn Kagan. Towards a Really Social Psychology: Liberation
Psychology Beyond Latin America. Pages 5172. Make note of major and minor core
ideas.
: TEXT1: Community-Social Psychology. Pages 3237.
: Nelson, G. & Prilleltensky, I. (Eds.) Community Psychology: In Pursuit of Liberation
and Well-Being. Chapter 2: The project of community psychology: Issues, values and
tools for liberation and well-being. This book available for <$5 here.

Lenses on liberation and oppression

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: Mullaly, B. (2010) (2nd ed). Challenging Oppression and Confronting Privilege, NY:
Oxford Univ Press. Chap. 1: Theoretical and Conceptual Considerations
: Watts, R. J., Diemer, M. A., & Voight, A. M. (2011). Critical consciousness: Current
status and future directions. New Directions For Child & Adolescent Development,
2011(134), 43-57. doi:10.1002/cd.310
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=67698119&site=ehost-live

: Freire, P. (1994). Pedagogy of the oppressed. NY: Contiuum. Chap 1.

Colonialism, Slavery, and their aftermath
: Memmi, A. (1965). The colonizer and the colonized. 119-41.
: Danieli, Y. (ed.)(1998). International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of
Trauma (Springer Series on Stress and Coping). NY: Plenum. Chapter by Cross on the
Legacy of Slavery.pdf.
: Riggs, D. & Walker, G. (2006). Queer(y)ing rights: Psychology, liberal individualism
and colonisation. Australian Psychologist, 41(2): 95 103
: Moan, G. (2011). Gender and colonialism: A psychological analysis of oppression and
liberation. London: Macmillan. Chap 2: Hierarchical systems: Patriarchy and
colonialism.
More Intersections of oppression and diversity
: James Jones (2006). Prejudice and Racism. McGraw
Hill. Chapter 1: Understanding prejudice and
racism.
: Harper, G. (2001) A journey towards liberation:
Confronting heterosexism and the oppression of LGBT
people. In G. Nelson & I. Prilleltensky (eds)

Community Psychology: In Pursuit of Liberation and

Well-being. London: Macmillan.
: TEXT: Immigration and Identity: The Ongoing Struggles for Liberation. Page 115-130.
4 Colonialism and Culturally-centered psychology Bulhan, p. 69-80.
Psychology, mental health practitioners, and structural violence
: Marsella, A. J. (2006). Psychology, the CIA, and Torture: A Hidden History...No
Longer!. Psyccritiques, 51(30), doi:10.1037/a0003537
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2006-09387001&site=ehost-live

4 Thomas Szasz (2002). Liberation by Oppression: A Comparative Study of Slavery and

Psychiatry. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

PART IV Liberation and Identity

: Bernstein, M. (2005). Identity Politics. Annual Review of Sociology, 31, 4774.
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=17647
377&site=ehost-live
4 Sidanius, J. & Pratto, F. (1999). Social Dominance: An intergroup theory of social
hierarchy and oppression. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Chap. 2: Social dominance
theorya new synthesis.
: Jones (2006). Culture wars, p. 480502.
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Postmes, T., & Smith, L. E. (2009). Why Do the Privileged Resort to Oppression? A Look
at Some Intragroup Factors. Journal Of Social Issues, 65(4), 769-790.
doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2009.01624.x [NOTE: this article introduces a special journal
issue on the topic of privilege studies]
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=44964783&site=ehost-live

4 Trimble, J. (2007). Prolegomena for the Connotation of Construct Use in the

Measurement of Ethnic and Racial Identity. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, No.
3, 247258
: Sears, A. (2005). Queer Anti-Capitalism: What's Left of Lesbian and Gay Liberation?
Science & Society, 69(1), 92-112.
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=16942
998&site=ehost-live
4 Moan, G. (2011). Chap 1: Women, psychology and society.
4 Karenga, M. (1997,Winter. Kwame Ture in the scales of history `a legacy of lessons.'.
Black Scholar. p. 46.
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=22014
6&site=ehost-live
4 Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (2004). The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior.
In: Political psychology: Key readings. J.T. Jost & J. Sidanius (Eds.). New York, NY,
US: Psychology Press. pp. 276-293.

PART V Liberation at the Individual and Microsystems Level

: Mullaly (2010). Chap 3: Oppression at the personal level.
: Martn-Bar, I. (1994). Writings for a liberation psychology. (A. Aron & S. Corn,
eds.). Chap 12: The lazy Latino: The ideological nature of Lain American fatalism.
4 Watts, R. J., & Flanagan, C. (2007). Pushing the envelope on youth civic engagement: A
developmental and liberation psychology perspective. Journal Of Community Psychology,
35(6), 779-792.
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=25786
710&site=ehost-live
4 Helene Shulman Lorenz and Mary Watkins (2000, Aug). Intrapsychic and clinical

perspectives: Depth Psychology and Colonialism: Individuation, Seeing Through, and

Liberation. Delivered at The International Symposium of Archetypal Psychology,
Psychology at the Threshold. Pacifica Graduate Institute, UC Santa Barbara.
: Alschuler, L. (2006). The psychopolitics of liberation: Political consciousness from a
Jungian perspective. Chap. 1 The political development of the person:
Conscientization, pages 1722; Chap 4: Liberated consciousness and the tension of
opposites, p. 6380.
4 Deutsch, M. (2011). A framework for thinking about oppression and its change. In P. T.
Coleman (Ed.) , Conflict, interdependence, and justice: The intellectual legacy of
Morton Deutsch (pp. 193-226). NY: Springer Science + Business Media.
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2011
-23784-009&site=ehost-live
o Transformational Leadership
o The psychology and personality of revolutionaries

PART VI More of interest from the sciences and the humanities

9

Evolutionary Psychology
4 de Waal, F. (2005). How animals do business. Scientific American, 73-79.
4 M.Christen & H. Glock (in press). The (limited) Space for Justice in Social Animals
(pre-pub final manuscript).
: S. Brosnan & F. de Waal (in press). Fairness in animals: Where to from here? (pre-pub
final final manuscript).
: Bales, K. (2002). The social psychology of Modern Slavery. Scientific American,
286(4), 80. (PDF)
: Ethics: Social change organizations: Interventions for organization and coalition
development (TBD)
4 Ollman, B. (1998). Why Dialectics? Why Now?. Science & Society, 62(3), 338.
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=11934
08&site=ehost-live

PART VII

Resistance, Empowerment and Agency

4 Bryant, JH (2014).How the Poor Can Save Capitalism: Rebuilding the Path to the Middle
Class. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
4 by John Hope Bryant
4 TEXT: Methods for liberation: Critical consciousness in action (p. 7392).
4 Beaumont, E. (2010). Political agency and empowerment: Pathways for developing a sense
of political efficacy in young adults. In L. Sherrod, J. Torney-Purta & C. A. Flanagan
(Eds.), Handbook of research on civic engagement in youth (pp. 525-558). Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley & Sons
4 DAugelli, A. R. (2006). Coming out, visibility, and creating change: Empowering
lesbian, gay and bisexual people in a rural university community. American Journal of
Community Psychology, 37, 203-210.
4 Ginwright, S., & James, T. (2002). From assets to agents of change: Social justice,
organizing, and youth development. In B. Kirshner, J. L. O'Donoghue, & M. McLaughlin
(Eds.), Youth participation: Improving institutions and communities. New Directions
for Youth Development, 2002(96), 2746. doi:10.1002/yd.25
: Mediratta, K., Shah, S., & McAlister, S. (2009). Community Organizing for Stronger
Schools: Strategies and successes. Harvard Education Press. Chap. 3 Transforming
schools; Chapter 4 5984; Moving toward equity 85110.
4 Peterson, N. A., Hamme, C. L., & Speer, P. W. (2002). Cognitive empowerment of African
Americans and Caucasians: Differences in understandings of power, political
functioning, and shaping ideology. Journal of Black Studies, 32(3), 332347.
doi:10.1177/002193470203200304
4 Lichbach, M. (1996).The Rebels dilemma. Univ Michigan Press.
http://books.google.com/books?id=CWJIl5A5NOMC&source=gbs_ViewAPI

PART VIII

Transformative, Integrative, and Spiritual Perspectives

: Ral Quinoes Rosado (2007). Consciousness in Action, toward an integral psychology of

Liberation and Transformation. See also: www.c-integral.org.
: Block, P. (2008). Community: The structure of belonging. San Francisco, CA US:
Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Chap. 1-3.
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4 Framing Deep Change: Essays on transformative change. Center for Transformational

Change http://issuu.com/xsochange/docs/framingdeepchange
4 Martn-Bar, I. (1994). Writings for a liberation psychology. (A. Aron & S. Corn,
eds.). Chap 2: Religion as an Instrument of psychological warfare.
4 Maton, K. (2000). Making a difference: The social ecology of social transformation.
American Journal of Community Psychology, 28, p.25-58.

PART IX Liberation (action) Research and Methodology

PAR Theory Readings for Assignment #2
: sStringer, E. (2007)(3rd Ed). Action Research. Sage Publications. Chap. 9:
Understanding Action Research. Pages 187-215.
: sTEXTBOOK: Montero, M./Methods for Liberation: Critical Consciousness in Action. Pg
73-92.
: sFetterman, D. & Wandersman, A. (2005) (eds). Empowerment Evaluation: Principles in
practice. Chap. 2: Principles of EE; Chap 3: Assessing levels of commitment. Pages 27
41/4272.

Popular epidemiology (environmental racism/justice):

o Maybe: San Sebastin, M., & Hurtig, A. K. (2005). Oil development and health in the
Amazon basin of Ecuador: the popular epidemiology process. Social science & medicine,
60(4), 799-807.
o Brown, P. (2000). Popular Epidemiology and Toxic Waste Contamination.Illness and
the environment: A reader in contested medicine, 364.

Other Methodology Readings

: TEXT: Gendering Peace and Liberation: A Participatory-Action Approach to Critical
Consciousness Acquisition Among Women in a Marginalized Neighborhood, p. 227
: Daiute,C. (in press). Living History by Youth in Post-war Situations. In K. Hanson and
O. Nieuwenhuys (Eds.) Living Rights: Theorizing Childrens Rights in International
Development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
: Liberation Ethics (class handouts).

: Decolonizing methodologies/literature,
o Tuhiwai Smith
o Chela Sandoval. (2000). Methodology of the Oppressed (Vol. 18). U of Minnesota Press.
: Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous
Peoples. NY: Zed Books.
4 Sandoval, C. (2000). Methodology of the Oppressed. Univ of Minnesota Press.
4 Campbell, C., & MacPhail, C. (2002). Peer education, gender and the development of
critical consciousness Participatory HIV prevention by South African youth. Social
Science and Medicine, 55(2), 331345. doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00289-1
4 Martn-Bar, I. (1994). Chap. 3: De-Ideologizing Reality, p. 169-172.
4 Corning, A. F., & Myers, D. J. (2002). Individual orientation toward engagement in
social action. Political Psychology, 23(4), 703729. doi:10.1111/0162-895X.00304

PART X Policies and Practices for Liberation psychology

More specific things Im interested in for organizing (in case anyone else is interested):
11

See what Street pars all about

Street theatre (invisible theatre /theatre of the oppressed)
o Boal, Augusto (1993). Theater of the Oppressed. New York: Theatre Communications
Group
o Boal, Augusto (1974).Tcnicas latinoamericanas de teatro popular. Buenos Aires:
Ediciones corregidor. p. 111.
o Green, S. L. (2001). Boal and beyond: Strategies for creating community dialogue.
Theater, 31(3), 47-61.

: Goodman, L., Litwin, A., et al. (2007). Applying Feminist Theory to Community
Practice: A multilevel empowerment intervention for low-income women with depression.
In E. Aldarando (Ed.) Promoting social justice through mental health practice.
Florence Kentucky: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. pp 265-90. (PDF)
: Narrative Therapy (Freedman & Combs).
4 TEXT: Liberation Psychology on the Street: Working with Youngsters Who have Lived on
the Streets of Caracas, p. 237.
4 Darder, A. (2002). Reinventing Paulo Freire; A pedagogy of love. Chapter 3: Teaching
as a act of Love: The classroom and critical praxis. P. 91148.
: A.Boal, and/or Rohd`s Theater for community conflict and dialog.
Trauma, Healing, and Intervention

Healing
o Including Stuff About Other POCs Experiences in Academia?

: TEXT: Psychological Accompaniment: Construction of Cultures of Peace Among a Community

Affected by War, p. 221.
4 Williams, J., & Lykes, M. (2003). Bridging Theory and Practice: Using Reflexive Cycles in
Feminist Participatory Action Research. Feminism & Psychology, 13(3), 287-294.
doi:10.1177/0959353503013003002
4 Watts, R. J., Griffith, D. M., & Abdul-Adil, J. (1999). Sociopolitical development as an
antidote for oppressiontheory and action. American Journal of Community Psychology, 27(2),
255271. doi:10.1023/A:1022839818873
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=2175942&site=e
host-live
: Carlson, E. D., Engbretson, J., & Chamberlain, R. M. (2006). Photovoice as a social process of
critical consciousness . Qualitative Health Research, 16(6), 836852.
doi:10.1177/1049732306287525
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2004-18392002&site=ehost-live
Aldarondo, E. (Ed)(2007). Advancing Social Justice Through Clinical
Practice. Routledge. Sample chapters:
10. W.J. Doherty, J. Carroll, Family-Centered Community Building: The Families and Democracy
Project
11. R. Rojano, The Practice of Community Family Therapy
12. L.A. Goodman, A. Bohlig, S.R. Weintraub, A. Green, J. Walker, Applying Feminist Theory to
Community Practice: A Multi
Level Empowerment Intervention for Low-Income Women With Depression
12

13. J. Perilla, E. Lavizzo, G. Ibanez, Towards a Community Psychology of Liberation

Social Policy

--More info in Course Library

4
Prilleltensky, I. & Nelson, G. (2002). Doing Psychology Critically: Making a Difference in
Diverse Settings. NY: Macmillan. Chap.13: Psychologists and the object of social change: Transforming
social policy. P 167-176.Foner, N., & Alba, R. (2010). Immigration and the Legacies of the Past: The
Impact of Slavery and the Holocaust on Contemporary Immigrants in the United States and Western
Europe. Comparative Studies In Society & History, 52(4), 798-819. doi:10.1017/S0010417510000447
4

APA Resolution on Poverty and Mental Hlth.pdf

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Course Requirements and Assignments

Grading Rubric
Communal Grading. Students provide each other with qualitative communal feedback either written
or spoken that involves critical and productive feedback.
Field trips will be developed collectively. They will either be during the assigned time of the
course or on another day or weekend. We will discuss and plan these trips on September 8th.

The original student document, in one piece

Alternative Course Syllabus for

Liberation Social and Community Psychology
Cory, Sonia, Whitney Deshonay, Tellisia
Course Overview
This survey course draws from multiple disciplines and emancipatory perspectives with an emphasis on nontraditional approaches to pedagogy. There exists a long history in the areas of social science and in
psychology of academic violence - research practices based in racism, theories used to influence harmful
social policy, testing on disenfranchised communities and the systematic exclusion of people of color, women,
LGBTQ, and others from academic conversations, spheres, and job positions. This course looks to practice
something wholly different, working not only to reclaim a community psychology in a theoretical sense, but
also to imagine and practice - in the class, through readings, in scholarly relationships - a psychology that
works to liberate, de-colonize, and create change for communities and for those scholars that have been
historically excluded and whose knowledge has been devalued. Therefore, this course will ask participants to
think critically, act critically, and come prepared with a project that pushes forward theories and practices of
community psychology.
Ultimately, the aims of this course are to break apart from the Europeanized version of learning (i.e.,
institutionalized in classrooms, academic essays/papers) by rejecting the traditional, and to discuss,
analyze, and explore the importance of local community knowledge, research and actions for social cultural
justice and equality across a range of activism projects.
OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the course is to engage in a pedagogical praxis of de-colonization. This requires the courses
participants to imagine and implement alternative strategies for recognizing wisdom produced by nonacademics, as well as developing alternative strategies for seeking and creating knowledge.
This includes but is not limited to:
Academic/Project Support: Time and space to offer critical feedback and support one another, to workshop
research/community ideas/actions. Students should be prepared to share their projects with peers, being able
to speak to theoretical questions, practical concerns, relationship to application/movement building/critical
praxis, etc.
Skills Building and Navigating the PhD: To gain insight on grant writing to raise funds for community
specific projects, skill based learning (i.e., non traditional focus groups, or how to interrupt
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oppression/violence we encounter in our work), potential consulting positions, and strategies for utilizing
your PhD outside the academy (i.e., community organizing).
Healing and Community Support: to share testimonies/struggles/victories encountered on the journey
towards, during, and beyond the PhD, to laugh and to play with peers, to have a safe space to envision a new
type of critical scholarship, healthy academic lives, and heal from experiences around the occupying
marginalized identities within the academy.
Learning Across Community Spaces/Activism Projects: To break out of the confines of a traditional
academic setting. To avoid/escape the Graduate Center and classroom, to engage in learning across
community projects, through workshop discussions, artifacts and video sharing, site/community specific field
trips and course gatherings/trips to culturally relevant museums and community events.
READINGS
There are no required readings. However, students can engage with various texts and discuss during
reflections.
Potential Shared Reading List:
Moraga, C. (Ed.). (1981). This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color (pp. 35-40).
Watertown, MA: Persephone Press.
Decolonizing methodologies/literature,
o Tuhiwai Smith
o Chela Sandoval. (2000). Methodology of the Oppressed (Vol. 18). U of Minnesota Press.
Radical Poetry
Healing
o Including Stuff About Other POCs Experiences in Academia?
More specific things Im interested in for organizing (in case anyone else is interested):
See what Street pars all about
Street theatre (invisible theatre /theatre of the oppressed)
o Boal, Augusto (1993). Theater of the Oppressed. New York: Theatre Communications Group
o Boal, Augusto (1974).Tcnicas latinoamericanas de teatro popular. Buenos Aires: Ediciones
corregidor. p. 111.
o Green, S. L. (2001). Boal and beyond: Strategies for creating community dialogue. Theater,
31(3), 47-61.
Popular epidemiology (environmental racism/justice):
o Maybe: San Sebastin, M., & Hurtig, A. K. (2005). Oil development and health in the
Amazon basin of Ecuador: the popular epidemiology process. Social science & medicine, 60(4),
799-807.
o Brown, P. (2000). Popular Epidemiology and Toxic Waste Contamination.Illness and the
environment: A reader in contested medicine, 364.

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