Photo by Geoff D'Auria.
Each year, an increasing number of CAP students participate in an exciting community-engaged learning project that sees students translating research articles into infographic posters. Students in the Law and Society, Individual and Society, Media Studies and Environment and Society streams contribute to the project in their CAP 101 course, which runs in Winter Term 2. Known as the MRAi (Making Research Accessible Initiative) Student Knowledge Exchange project, this assignment partners with the UBC Learning Exchange and UBC Libraries to make research that focuses on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside—which is often locked behind paywalls or written in jargon-filled language—more accessible to non-academic audiences.
“Students repeatedly prove to be capable intermediaries in this process of knowledge mobilization: carefully unpacking research findings produced by scholars and then transforming this content into visually engaging outputs that aim to foster knowledge exchange.”
Over the course of the project, students collaborate with published researchers to ensure the original meaning of their research is maintained in their “translated” output. When lead author approval is obtained, student work is then published on the MRAi’s Research Access Portal (RAP) — an open-access and publicly accessible repository of research findings and community materials. Infographics sit side-by-side with published research on this portal, inviting members of the public to read and engage with both sources.
Now in its sixth year, this TLEF-funded project has begun to expand beyond the CAP classroom to upper-levels courses in the Bachelor of Media Studies and to a graduate course in the iSchool. CAP Instructors, Dr. Evan Mauro and Dr Kirby Manià, who are co-Principal Investigators on the project, alongside their project manager, UBC PhD student, Avneet Dhillon, oversee project delivery. To date, 25 infographics have been published on the RAP; 2025 will see 11 more infographics, including interactive websites and videos, added to this public repository.
Photo by Viaan Wu.
This year students were able to showcase their author-approved infographics at a community-based event hosted by the nə́c̓aʔmat ct Strathcona branch of the Vancouver Public Library. The event was officially opened by Elder Dr. Roberta Price and it offered students an opportunity to share their work with DTES residents and community members. The event invited all attendees to think through ways universities can better produce research, which is more widely accessible, that speaks directly to community needs.
Photo by Viaan Wu.
Photo by Viaan Wu.
The MRAi Kx Team wishes to thank students, participating faculty and researchers, along with project partners, the UBC Learning Exchange, UBC Libraries, and the VPL for their continued support of this project. The upcoming year of the project anticipates more student involvement and expansion into new classrooms. Watch this space!
