Full Text for 2000 Caroline Wang on Photovoice Participatory Research to Affect Social Policy Flyer:

Celebrating Women of Color in Academe

WOMEN’S STUDIES

WINTER 2000 SPEAKER SERIES

Thursday, January 13

Caroline Wang

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, School of Public Health

Photovoice: Participatory Research to Affect Social Policy

1:40 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Lecture Hall B, School of Management

Photovoice is an innovative research methodology developed by Dr. Wang and her colleagues to put the means of imaging the world into the hands of community members. As a powerful means of communication, photography fills our worlds with images that show people what they should look like, how they should act, and who they ought to be. Many people, however, find that they are portrayed in ways that are not consonant with their views of themselves and their own lived experiences. Photovoice seeks to rectify this social gap as it enables people to record and reflect their lives from their own perspectives, to increase collective knowledge about community issues, and to inform policy makers and the broader society about issues of increasing concern. Dr. Wang has used photovoice methodology with women in China and with the homeless in southeastern Michigan.