The Community Bridge Lab is an interdisciplinary initiative at the University of Lethbridge.
The Community Bridge Lab is co-led by Dr. Kaylen Schwarz (School of Liberal Education), Dr. Jodie Asselin (Department of Anthropology), and Dr. Julie Young (Department of Geography and Environment). Along with two senior colleagues, we established the Community Bridge Lab in Fall 2021 to provide space, training, and funding for qualitative and community-engaged student research and experiential projects.
Our goal is to serve as a hub for student researchers, supporting them to work collaboratively with faculty, community organizations, and each other. To this end, we foster a cooperative work environment that amplifies connections and builds skills through informal mentoring.
Any University of Lethbridge student engaged in qualitative research with a community-engaged agenda and a Southern Alberta focus can apply to be part of the Community Bridge Lab. The training and networking events we facilitate provide additional resources to bolster students’ projects and create opportunities for ongoing skill building. As a collaborative co-working space, the Community Bridge Lab offers students who may otherwise work in isolation a place for connection and interaction with peers.
Since the Community Bridge Lab’s inception, faculty members have established a physical presence on campus, developed core values and operating procedures, and built relationships across departments and faculties. We have organized workshops related to ethics applications, qualitative coding, ethnographic fieldwork, visual and participatory methods, online security, open access publishing, graduate school preparation, and social science career opportunities. We have also hosted several invited speakers and student research dissemination events.
