30 Years of Photovoice Conference: Participatory Analysis of PV Data by Claudia Mitchell (English)

Caroline Wang’s work 30 years ago set a high bar for both relevance and impact of social research to inform advocacy and policy change. In spite of the many challenges in participatory visual research that so many of us have grappled with over the years, we are left with Wang’s legacy of ‘let’s do more!’ as we work with participants as authors and co-producers of knowledge. One aspect of photovoice where we can ‘do more’ is around the idea and practice of visual data analysis fully driven and owned by participants. In this keynote address I offer what I hope will be compelling arguments for increasingly engaging participants in interpretation and analysis of photovoice data. My talk will view this topic through youth-focused examples in Canada, India, and South Africa and argue for why it is more urgent than ever that we ‘step up’ ways of ensuring that photovoice data interpretation and analysis be participant-led and owned.
Claudia Mitchell is a Distinguished James McGill Professor in the Faculty of Education, McGill University and an Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. At McGill she is the Director of the Institute for Human Development and Well-being and the founder and director of the Participatory Cultures Lab, a research and training unit in the Faculty of Education funded through the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI).
Her research focuses on participatory visual and arts-based approaches to working with young people and communities to address critical social issues such as gender equality and gender-based violence and in a wide range of country contexts in West Africa, Southern and Eastern Africa, and East Asia Pacific. Claudia also leads several funded projects working with Indigenous youth and focusing on arts-based approaches to address sexual violence. She is currently heading up a project funded the Ministry of Health and Security (MSSS) on Canadian Youth Talking about Pandemic Experiences (CYTAPE).