Stories that Cut Deep: Collaborative Visual Storytelling with Black Yield Institute

Abstract

This ethnographic dissertation research project focuses on a digital storytelling workshop called Food/Stories which took place in collaboration with Black Yield Institute in Spring of 2023. The Food/Stories workshop is the case study that I used to explore the effectiveness of Collaborative Visual Storytelling, a methodological approach that provides a road map for university-based research practitioners to collaborate ethically with community organizations and individuals towards mutually agreed upon goals, using visual research tools. This inquiry included a deep exploration of the ethics of engagement, an attention to process over product, the use of story circles to foreground conversations about lived experiences with the food system, and digital storytelling as the primary visual research tool. The research combines elements of Critical Participatory Action Research and Participatory Visual Methods and is rooted in Black feminist and Indigenous epistemologies which center the lived and embodied experiences of marginalized people in the creation of knowledge and for whom relationship is central to the research process. I argue for the use of Collaborative Visual Storytelling in social movements and community partnerships wherein university-based practitioners and community members work toward a community-identified goal, utilizing visual tools. The data in this project demonstrate that relationality is and must be central to community-university collaborations, that existing power dynamics need to be addressed, that process is as important as product, and that projects must move only as quickly as trust can develop. This project has implications for the way that universities and their surrounding communities might engage with one another in ways that are collaborative, rooted in a strong consideration of ethics, and which pursue mutually beneficial outcomes.