The Real Talk Academy

The Real Talk Academy for Black/ African American undergraduate students (Real Talk) was a collaborative student-led research project hosted in Spring 2023 in partnership with The Black/ African American Cultural Centre (B/AACC) and The Ethnic Studies CollabLab in the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University. Focusing on decolonial, intersectional and transnational methods in Ethnic Studies, African American/ Black Studies (Alexander 2005; Yamahatta-Taylor 2017; Berger 2016) and other related disciplines across creative, community-engaged and scholarly research practices, research associates documented the social, cultural and political experiences of Black and African American students at CSU and surrounding communities.

The Academy was inspired by an existing similarly titled weekly drop-in programming at the B/AACC, which is intended to be a brave space where students are welcome to share their voice in a variety of major discussions around things such as: Gentrification, Social Stratification, what it’s like to be a queer person of color (QPOC), intersections of identities, current events, pop culture, national news and many other engaging topics. 

Based on this vision, the Real Talk Academy was committed to the following learning objectives:

1. Providing an interactive, creative spaces for Black/ African American undergraduate students to work collectively to produce knowledge about the issues affecting them.

2. Providing an opportunity for students to receive mentorship and training from scholars and researchers from the CSU community.

3. Providing an opportunity for students to learn about and conduct community-engaged research and to collaboratively develop public-facing accessible scholarly, artistic, and creative projects reflecting the decolonial, intersectional and transnational research methodologies guiding the project.

Research Outputs:

The Real Talk Academy provided research internships for 7 undergraduate students from various scholarly fields at Colorado State University who learned about decolonial, intersectional and transnational methods in Ethnic Studies, African American/ Black Studies, and other related disciplines. In this immersive, participant led, and community-engaged project, participants learned how to do ethnographic research and particularly participant observation. They also had an opportuntiy to analyze qualitative data collected throughout the project. This first phase of the academy ran from January to April 2023 (and will entailed the following outputs:

Phase 1: Qualitative Research Methods Training (4 weeks)

Participants attended four workshops in the first month to learn from scholars, researchers, and community leaders about how to conduct decolonial, intersectional and community-centered qualitative research.

Phase 2: Ethnographic Research (4 weeks)

Through immersive Participant Observation during weekly Real Talk meetings, research interns documented and reflected on the topics being discussed, issues being raised and main themes emerging from weekly discussions with their peers.

Phase 3: Data Analysis and Report Writing (4 weeks)

With mentorship from scholars and researchers and community leaders from the CSU community, research interns worked at the Ethnic Studies CollabLab l to conduct data analysis and begin writing a preliminary report on the findings of the study.

Phase 4: Dissemination of Data and Knowledge Mobilization

Research Associates presented a poster display at the Lory Student Centre for Murals in March 2023 at CSU.

A report was submitted to the university with highlighting issues emerging from the study, and recommendations for addressing faced by Black/ African American students at Colorado State University.

Real Talk Academy Highlights

Real Talk Academy Report 2023 - COMING SOON!