EDIC-PDC Workshop by Dr. Hillary Mellinger
About the event
Third Spring 2025 EDIC-PDC Workshop
Wednesday, Feb. 26, 12:10–1:30 p.m.
Join via Zoom
Title: Elevating Voices & Navigating Identity Dynamics in Community-Engaged Research
Abstract
In this workshop, Dr. Hillary Mellinger will share her ongoing research on how police and Spanish-speaking community members navigate language and cultural barriers. From 2023 to 2024, Dr. Mellinger conducted seven focus groups with Spanish-speaking community members, 32 interviews with law enforcement personnel, and took field notes from 60 hours of police ride-alongs. Dr. Mellinger’s research site was a mid-sized, predominantly Hispanic community in Washington. Dr. Mellinger’s long-term research goal is to identify feasible policy recommendations to reduce language barriers and their associated challenges in law enforcement.
This workshop is organized into two parts. First, Dr. Mellinger will describe her research, with particular attention given to how her own identity and positionality influenced the research process. Second, Dr. Mellinger invites workshop participants to share their own experiences, views, suggestions, and feelings about this topic, so that we can learn from each other.
In preparation for this workshop, Dr. Mellinger recommends that participants read Dr. Linda M. Alcoff’s (1992) article on “The Problem of Speaking for Others” (available electronically through WSU’s library). Dr. Alcoff is a Panamanian American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). She discusses the challenges of researching groups to which someone does not belong, and urges researchers to elevate voices, rather than speak “for” or “over” voices. She also urges scholars to interrogate their identities and assumptions, and to incorporate transparency and reflexivity into their writing.
Bio
Hillary Mellinger is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University. Her research interests include the criminalization of migration, asylum policy, the immigration legal profession, and interpretation challenges within the criminal justice system and immigration system.