30 September - 2 October 2025

Creative and Engaged Transdisciplinary Research for Health Equity Conference

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The Practice and Ethics of Participatory Action Research and Creative Evaluation 

Facilitated by Prof Helen Kara

Date: Monday, 29 September 2025

Time: 8:30am - 4:00pm

Location: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University

Start your conference experience with a dynamic, interactive short course on Participatory Action Research (PAR), led by internationally renowned scholar Prof Helen Kara. Known for her work on creative, ethical, and inclusive research methods, Prof Kara brings creative expertise and an engaging approach to participatory practice.

This session will introduce participants to the core values, methods, and challenges of PAR. You’ll explore how to work with communities—not on them—to co-create knowledge that leads to meaningful action and social change. Whether you’re a student, academic, practitioner, or community leader, this course offers a practical and inspiring entry into doing research differently.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the core principles and ethics of PAR and reflect on why participatory approaches are relevant to their own research and community contexts.

2. Apply collaborative inquiry tools (such as small group dialogue and artefact analysis) to identify research priorities and co-create knowledge with peers.

3. Experiment with creative analytic methods, including object analysis, poetic inquiry, and dialogical engagement with data, as strategies for deepening interpretation and meaning-making.

4. Critically assess power dynamics in participatory research, identifying strategies for managing inequities and fostering inclusive participation.

5. Integrate creative evaluation practices into their research design, demonstrating how participatory and arts-based methods can generate actionable insights and strengthen accountability to communities.

6. Reflect on their own positionality and practice reflexive engagement to ensure that research processes remain ethical, inclusive, and action-oriented.

Spaces are limited – early registration is encouraged!