SALT LAke city

LOCAL NODE

URBAN Utah is the newest node of the national Urban Research-Based Action Network (URBAN). Founded in 2010, URBAN seeks to forge relationships between academics and community-based practitioners, break down silos among academic disciplines and issue areas, and create mechanisms to support community-engaged scholars at all steps of their careers. URBAN’s work is rooted in critical approaches to community-based research and a commitment to advancing movements for justice and liberation. URBAN has held a series of national convenings and spawned a family of geographic- and discipline-based nodes across the US.
URBAN Utah grew out of conversations among faculty, students, and community partners at the University of Utah in 2017. In the wake of the Trump presidency, participants saw a need for stronger collaboration among among activist scholars, organizers, and community leaders. We hoped to better leverage the resources of higher education, and the tools of academic research, in support of local community and social movement organizing. URBAN UT is the result.
Through a process of listening and dialogue, we developed a shared mission and set of priorities for our work together. While initially launched in Salt Lake City, our network has begun to grow statewide through virtual and in-person activities. University Neighborhood Partners and the Bennion Center at the University of Utah serve as backbone organizations for the network.

URBAN sessions at the All-In Conference

URBAN will be hosting the Plenary on Wednesday, Oct 27th from 3:30 PM to 5:OO PM at the Resource Center for Non-Violence. URBAN will also be hosting the Networking Breakfast on Thursday, Oct 28th from 8:OO AM to 9:00 AM at the Stevenson Event Center Courtyard

Read More »

NEW DATE: All-In: Co-Creating Knowledge for Justice Conference October 26-28, 2022

All-In: Co-Creating Knowledge for Justice ConferenceOctober 26-28, 2022 Santa Cruz, California Co-presented by the Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz andUrban Research Based Action Network (URBAN) We are excited to announce that the All-In Conference will take place in Santa Cruz, California, on October 26-28, 2022. The conference brings together university

Read More »

New Special Issue of Social Sciences

Edited by Dr. Steve McKey and Dr. Claudia Lopez the Special Issue “New Trends in Community-Engaged Research: Co-producing Knowledge for Justice” in the Social Sciences Journal is now out with many contributions from URBAN folks! All of the articles are open-access, check them out here

Read More »

YOUTH ACTIVISM through a GLOBAL lens: Join organizers and scholars discussing youth formations in Cameroon, Mexico, the Philippines, and Kenya

Wed., March 2, 16:30 GMT/11:30am ET.  Free zoom registration here: https://tinyurl.com/2p8bwk6a.  Panelists will be discussing the three NEW articles out today in the Forge: https://t.co/fKF4f0J2i2  Participatory Budgeting in Mexico Community Care is the Language of Peace in Kenya and the Philippines Young Women’s Peace Activism in Cameroon The panel is open to

Read More »

All-In All-Together

All-In All-Together Community based research navigating the turbulent time and places of political and biological pandemics We know that the turbulence of our time and places can only be navigated safely when we are ‘all-in’ ‘all-together’ to find creative ways to deploy our resources, resist the ongoing assaults on vulnerable

Read More »