Course Descriptions: M.A./Ph.D. in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies
TRADITIONS, HISTORIES, AND CRITICAL THEORIES OF CLIE
is foundational for each area of the curriculum and provides grounding in critical theory and transformational application. This portion of the curriculum grounds students in decolonial theories and praxes and their transformational application toward the co-creation of alternatives for liberation.
Introduction to Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies HCL 730, 2 units
This introductory course explores the theoretical and practical links among the four major concentrations of the CLIE program: community psychology, Indigenous psychologies, liberation psychologies, and ecopsychologies. Emerging critical philosophies of decoloniality and complex living systems from Africa and the Americas help to place the evolution of historical paradigms through which these psychologies have been understood as separate and dissociated in the past and connected and interdependent in the present. Animist theories and practices are also placed in historical and cultural perspective, emphasizing symbolic, creative, and healing dimensions of the work..
Transformative Practices HCL 997, 0 units
Various schools of psychology have created therapeutic contexts for personal transformation and/or healing. These practices are related to transformative rituals and rites across cultures and history. Ecological, cultural, and organizational work have also created transformative practices. During the first two years of the program, students are expected to engage in a minimum of 60 hours of transformative practice within a relational context. Latitude is given to students to choose the form of this practice in accordance with their needs and interests. Examples of such practice may include, but are not limited to, group dialogue work, community theater, facilitated vision questing, rites of passage, arts-based community work, and community-based spiritual practices. Students are invited to use this requirement to gain experience and further training in a group or community modality they hope to use in their work. Students are required to submit a proposal in advance of beginning and a log recording the hours they complete. Pass/No Pass
Decolonial Philosophy HCL 925, 2 units
This introduction to decolonial philosophy leads to the questions of the coloniality of temporality and aesthetic experience that underlies the colonizing of imaginaries. Beneath the political, social, economic, and military domination of the colonized exists the colonization of the consciousness of the colonized. This course exposes aesthetic and affective dimensions of decolonial struggle and opens towards poietic engagements of the lives, histories, and senses of being of the excluded and colonized.
CRITICAL COMMUNITY, LIBERATION, INDIGENOUS, AND ECO-PSYCHOLOGIES
These courses enlist us to create a critical and liberatory community and ecopsychology for the 21st century. Community liberation, Indigenous, and eco-psychologies are placed in conversation with decolonial psychology to explore the interface between psyche, culture, and nature, as we seek to create paths for psychological, community, cultural, and environmental well-being.
Introduction to Criticaland Decolonial Community Psychology HCL 700, 2 units
Students will be introduced to the history of community psychology and the application of critical theory and decolonial studies to examine its concepts, methodologies, and frameworks within diverse socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts (i.e., social and human services, schools, youth development, the health care system, non-governmental, governmental, and community-based organizations). The process and outcome of the community mental health movement will be examined, showing how a psychological understanding of community assets and stressors, coping strategies, social networks and social support contributes to the application of community-based approaches to holistic community health and wellbeing. Discourse on key concepts such as coloniality, oppression, social class, ethnicity and racism, social, epistemic, linguistic, and ecological justice, and social change will lead to the acquisition of practical skills in assessing community wellbeing and in utilizing lessons learned for social change and policy development. Students will co-construct a decolonial community psychology that is polyvocal, pluriversal, and imagines community praxis in a different way (otherwise).
Psychologies of Liberation HCL 781, 2 units
This course explores psychologies that attempt to understand and address the impacts of colonialism and coloniality on individuals, communities, and ecosystems. Beginning with the descriptions of the impacts of colonial violence, racism, and exploitation, we locate the legacy of colonialism in the contemporary world and in our own local communities and relationships. Through the works of liberation psychologies in the Latin American context and beyond, we explore examples of prophetic imagination and actions-in-solidarity to transform oppressive structures and to create liberatory environments and decolonial futures. Our shared undertaking is to explore the possible roles of liberation psychologies in healing the sequelae of collective traumas, in the understanding and addressing of their roots, and in the co-creation of sustainable, just, and dynamically liberatory communities.
Indigenous Psychologies I HCL 710, 2 units
This class will highlight the historical, social/cultural, and psychological risk factors that Indigenous people experienced on contact with colonial settlers. Definitions of these will also be included to see variations through an Indigenous cultural lens and the impact on behaviors related to traditions, ceremonies, and way of life. Discussion will include psychological worldviews, Indigenous ways of thinking, and traditional knowledge shared by Indigenous scholars and elders. This will include the process and parts of stories shared by the keepers of Indigenous knowledge. In addition, this class will present an overview of modern Indian psychology and methodology, as well as Indigenous healing definitions. Ceremonies of Awakening are reviewed in relation to dreams, therapist and shaman parallels, and spiritual power.
Indigenous Psychologies II HCL 860, 2 units
Psychological knowledge with scientific ambitions has primarily emerged in the Western World. New movements around the world are seeking to create ownership of knowledge in an expanded sense as a means of liberation from centuries of intellectual imposition maintained by hegemonic regimes of truth. Systems of scientific knowledge were built in the Western hemisphere to erase Indigenous knowledge through the colonization and imperialistic exploitation of lands and peoples. Evidences of the devastating pervasive impacts of these Western colonial systems are epistemicide, ecocide, and genocide of many Indigenous cultures. However, Indigenous cultures are still thriving, resisting colonial impositions in knowledge and being, and planting seeds of hope and liberation by proposing holistic cosmovisions that delink from the Anthropocene. Indigenous movements have sprouted everywhere. One of them is Indigenous psychologies, which propose emic versus colonial-etic research, decolonial epistemologies, axiologies, and methodologies based on Indigenous cosmogonies to co-construct knowledge “otherwise.” These movements are furnishing the making of Indigenous psychologies that can address the numerous challenges of our time such as continued colonization, racism, war, militarization, violence, and the desecration of the environment (ecocide)—to name a few. This course addresses the plurality of perspectives and voices representing decolonial analyses of psychological phenomena in diverse geopolitical settings. Students critically apply Indigenous Psychologies’ methodologies, tools, and approaches to dismantle the interplay of intersubjective relationality and intersectionality in the understanding of psycho- cultural phenomena. The interaction of self-subject-culture-polis-ecology will be used to co-construct a pluriversal decoloniality in Zapatistas’ own words: “in a world where many worlds fit.”
Reflexive Community Praxis II HCL 890, 2 units
In this course, students continue to reflect critically on and present orally and visually their second community praxis projects by applying theories informed by analyses of intersectionality and coloniality. They examine how, community, liberation, Indigenous, and eco-psychologies oriented their work, what their projects can contribute to these disciplines, their methodological choices, and how these impacted data analysis, findings, and theory building. Data analyses methodologies are applied to stories and images gathered in praxis projects. Scholarly and participatory dissemination venues are practiced, such as oral presentation, development of conference posters, creation of digital presentations, and various publication venues.
Liberation Studies and Action (LiSA) HCL 965, 2 units
Roderick Watts coined the term “liberation studies and action (LiSA),” reminding liberation psychologists that psychology is not sufficient for the challenges we face. We need to work in a transdisciplinary manner (i.e., arts, spirituality, economics, history, philosophy, civil resistance) to create the social movements that are needed to achieve greater justice, dynamic peace, and sustainability. This course will distill lessons learned from liberatory social movements that can be used in our current and future work.
Psychology of Violence and Its Prevention HCL 731, 2 units
With the hope of deepening our capacities for the prevention of violence, we will explore the relationship between structural, intrapersonal, and interpersonal violence in a variety of cultural settings, and the psychological theories that account for it. Innovative community and ecological approaches to violence reduction programs will be presented.
Ecopsychology I: Earth Democracy HCL 732, 2 units
Ecopsychology conceived as Earth Democracy that protects the rights of the Earth as a Sentient Being has understood: that our human selves are part of a vast nexus that includes not only other selves, but animals, plants, earth, water, and sky. This kind of Ecopsychology is informed by Indigenous cosmovisions and onto-epistemologies and conceives nature, humans, and all Earth Beings at once and together, and to illuminate our place as humans within the surrounding environment, dismantling Antropocentrism. Environmental justice helps us to focus not only on nature’s effects on us as humans, but on humans’ destructive effects on nature and the disproportionate distribution of these effects to marginalized (or racialized ) communities. These foundations help us to live and work to create what Vandana Shiva has named as Earth democracy, where economic justice and environmental responsibility supplant greed and violence.
Ecopsychology II: Environmental and Earth Justice HCL 847, 2 units
Ecopsychology II introduces Indigenous environmental justice strategies and community approaches: the idea that all living beings are part of a complex web of interconnection, and that culturally embedded strategies for ecological sustainability are critical to the Earth’s future. Indigenous Knowledge and Praxes Systems in this area can provide insights and opportunities for dialogue with Westernized modes of thought that not only separate humans from other-than-human nature, but segregate some communities from others and needed resources, disproportionately exposing them to toxicities, and other forms of violence. This course connects structural violence imposed on human communities with violence against other-than-human nature, emphasizing the role of racial disparities, neoliberal corporate and state interests in undermining local economies and ecologies, and environmental and earth justice movements that address this destruction.
Critical Topics in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies HCL xxx, 2 units
This course offers theoretical and experiential study of various participatory, co-constructed and restorative approaches to foster critical decolonial consciousness to build community toward pluriversal living.
Oral Exam HCL 992, 2 units
In this culminating course, students create their philosophies of teaching, and then embody them as they teach the work that draws them into their dissertations and professional work beyond the dissertation. This course fulfills the oral exam requirement. Pass/No Pass
APPROACHES TO GROUP AND COMMUNITY PRACTICE
These didactic-experiential classes introduce students to a variety of dialogical, somatic, and arts-based approaches to community issues and dynamics, building capacities to listen across differences, creatively address conflict and division, create pathways to individual and community healing in the aftermath of trauma, and to rehearse for desired decolonial futures.
Performance Studies: Collective Creation and Community Based Performance for Social Transformation HCL 895, 2 units
This course introduces students to a range of perspectives on popular, community based, collective, activist, and experimental performance practices in order to consider the transformative potential of cultural production. Approaching performance as both an object and method of inquiry, students will gain familiarity with some of the embodied practices and representational politics of arts-based activism, collective movement building, and ensemble-based devising.
Performance Ecologies HCL 873, 2 units
This course exposes students to an array of performance methodologies and techniques to think critically about and apply the powerful agency of performance in creative settings such as theater, dance, music, visual arts, education, community activism, and sovereignty movements worldwide. Students will engage in contemporary approaches to create and analyze collaborative performances within ecological, historical, and sociopolitical contexts and their enactments in everyday life.
COMMUNITY PRAXIS AND PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH
Through participatory and dialogical research and praxis, students learn how to apprentice to community groups and issues, to be a witness to the ongoing work of such groups, to work collaboratively toward mutually desired transformations and actions, and to collaboratively evaluate to what extent these goals have been reached. Research approaches—such as hermeneutic, phenomenological, critical, art-based, participatory action, and feminist—enable students to deeply engage a group’s questions and concerns, while deepening ethical discernment around issues of power and privilege and the impacts of ongoing coloniality to propose actions toward decoloniality.
Community Praxis Preparation I HCL 783A, 1 unit
This course is an introduction to HCL 783 where students work with a Community Praxis advisor to discern their summer plans and develop a proposal. Pass/No Pass; No Incompletes
Community Praxis Preparation I HCL 881, 2 units
Students are introduced to a set of theoretical frameworks and methodological tools to engage in qualitative inquiry in community and ecological settings. The participatory research paradigms presented draw on standard qualitative methods, along with Indigenous, visual, arts-based, participatory, and emergent methodologies. Stated inquiry goals to address the disruption of social, economic, and environmental injustice and coloniality. Research design within this framework requires that inquiry be conducted collaboratively with community members, to foster individual and group self-reflection, and to value and share local knowledge sources and strategies for social transformation.
Community Praxis Preparation II HCL 883A, 1 units
This course is an introduction to HCL 883 where students work with a Community Praxis advisor to discern their summer plans and develop a proposal. Pass/No Pass; No Incompletes
Foundations for Research: Participatory and Qualitative Inquiry HCL 881, 2 units
Students are introduced to a set of theoretical frameworks and methodological tools to engage in qualitative inquiry in community and ecological settings. The participatory research paradigms presented draw on standard qualitative methods, along with Indigenous, visual, arts-based, participatory, and emergent methodologies. Students formulate their inquiry goals to address the disruption of social, economic, and environmental injustice and coloniality. Research design within this framework requires that inquiry be conducted collaboratively with community members, to foster individual and group self-reflection, and to value and share local knowledge sources and strategies for social transformation.
Community Praxis I HCL 783, 4 units
This summer community praxis helps students to create a bridge from their growing theoretical knowledge of community, indigenous, and liberation psychologies to developing community praxis that support well-being, ecological sustainability, and liberation. Through participatory work with projects connected to a contemporary cultural, community, or sociopolitical issue that interests them, students explore and practice applications of theoretical and experiential learnings from all areas of the curriculum. Prerequisite: HCL 783A; Pass/No Pass
Community Praxis II HCL 883, 4 units
In this community praxis students either return to the site of their first Community Praxis or choose a new one. Some projects may involve the student in the ongoing work at that site; some may involve work that is initiated by the student through participatory methodologies. Students are encouraged to engage in pilot research to practice methodological skills that will assist them in future research. Through engagement and solidarities with the community or group where they are working, students may generate research questions that can be explored using various qualitative, arts-based, post-qualitative, indigenous, and participatory approaches. Prerequisite: HCL 883A; Pass/No Pass
Reflexive Community Praxis I HCL 880, 2 units
Students critically reflect on and present orally and visually their community praxis projects considering impacts through the application of theories informed by analyses of intersectionality and coloniality. They examine how – community, liberation, Indigenous, and eco-psychologies oriented their work and what their projects can contribute to these disciplines. Scholarly and participatory analyses of praxis projects are explored, including approaches to oral presentation, development of conference posters, creation of digital presentations, as well as various publication venues.
Community Program and Organization Evaluation and Resource Mobilization HCL 879, 2 units
Students will learn to conduct community program and organizational evaluations using empowerment and participatory frameworks, as well as other types of evaluation data to determine processes and outcomes of interventions and collective action. Students will learn to interpret results and apply lessons learned for community and organizational growth and resource mobilization. Particular emphasis will be given to the importance of worldview and political ideology in addressing evaluative inquiry and the framing of a participatory and empowering evaluation approach to promote community-based grant writing skills. Students will learn to design evaluations, develop evaluation plans, and align evaluation questions to program and organizational learning needs. In addition, students will learn to conduct needs assessments, define and prioritize program goals and objectives, and develop procedures and techniques to facilitate community-based grant-writing for resource mobilization to attain the identified goals. Emphasis will be placed on participatory and empowerment evaluation approaches that increase program sustainability.
Special Topics in Liberatory Qualitative Inquiry HCL 930, 2 units
This course will explore current and emergent areas in qualitative inquiry, including new empiricisms, art-based methods, and Indigenous methodologies. Students will engage in practicum projects to develop theorization, data collection and analysis skills, with an emphasis on liberatory goals.
Participatory Research Practicum: Creating an Interpretive Community HCL 990, 2 units
Students will work with a variety of qualitative interpretive frameworks, including visual, participatory action research, and thematic analysis, in order to learn how to strengthen their data collection skills. Students will apply various methodological approaches that promote participation, inclusion of diverse and conflicting voices and worldviews, and crystallization of data interpretation. By engaging together in research, students will deepen their sensitivity to ethical issues and the impact of social location within the structural factors that continue to maintain coloniality on data collection and interpretation, as well as practice strategies in the analysis of their own experiences. Students will learn how to use research results for transformative social change. Emphasis will be given to the importance of “giving psychology away” throughout the research process and in developing research products for community use and sustainable systems change.
Dissertation Development HCL 932, 2 units
Dissertation Development provides the framework for writing the Concept Paper, which serves as the basis for the dissertation proposal. This course focuses on crafting a research question, establishing the purpose of the research, and drafting a preliminary literature review methodology. Pass/No Pass; No incompletes
Research Writing: Conceiving the Dissertation HCL 933, 4 units
This course is designed for the completion and approval of the concept paper. Students refine their research question and literature review, and hone their methodology for submission of a final concept paper. Prerequisite: HCL 932; Pass/No Pass
Dissertation Writing HCL 980, 15 units
During this course, students assemble their dissertation committees, write their proposals, conduct their research, complete the dissertation process, and defend their dissertations in a public forum. This course may be taken concurrently with other courses. Additional fees are assessed for this course. Prerequisites: HCL 932, HCL 933; Pass/No Pass; No incompletes
Documentary Film Production & Phenomenology HCL , 2 units
Through theoretical application and a creative workshop lab, this course introduces students to documentary filmmaking through a phenomenological lens. Students will explore the lived experience of film production from both the filmmaker’s and the audience’s perspectives. Historical, conceptual, and methodological foundations of cinematic traditions are examined alongside contemporary documentary production. Students will engage a topic relevant to CLIE and their praxis commitments, taking into account sociopolitical, cultural, and local storytelling practices. We will address paradigmatic codes in narrative and visual translation of theory, story, and affective epistemologies. We will consider how the representation of animist, relational, and borderland ontologies translates into visual storytelling, as well as how to effectively present story concepts for social impact through thematic framing strategies.
Data Analysis: Interpretation, Dissemination, and Implementation HCL 910, 2 units
In this course students will learn various approaches to qualitative and post-qualitative data analysis as well as strategies for dissemination and implementation of findings.
Current Topics in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Ecopsychologies HCL 894, 2 units
This course will explore current topics within Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Ecopsychologies.
