Researching Authentic Relational Communities
Insights from the Center for IRH’s Transdisciplinary Graduate Research Fellowship
Introduction
“Very simply, I’m interested in research because I’m interested in life. I want to learn more about (and from) the conditions that allow for life, for us to thrive, and for emergence.”
— Ayman Mir (IRH Fellow, Transdisciplinary Design, Parsons School of Design)
We are living through a crisis of connection.
Many of us feel the weight of separation – from ourselves, from each other, from the communities we long to belong to. We may see it in the faces of colleagues navigating institutions that prize productivity over presence, in the stories of communities whose wisdom has been extracted rather than honored, in our own experiences of trying to build bridges across difference while carrying the wounds of disconnection.
As researchers and practitioners in community-engaged scholarship, we find ourselves asking deeply personal questions: How do we create spaces where people can show up as their whole selves? How do we honor the communities we work with as partners in knowledge creation, not just subjects of study? And perhaps the most transformative question emerged from our own journey together: How might we research authentic relationships by becoming one ourselves?
These questions formed the heart of the Center for Integrative Relational Health's intensive 10-week summer graduate research fellowship, which brought together five graduate scholars from diverse academic backgrounds whose research interests center on relational and community-focused inquiry. What emerged was far more than a traditional research project; it became a living laboratory for the very principles the fellows sought to understand. The transdisciplinary nature of this fellowship proved essential to its insights. Five graduate researchers brought their distinct perspectives and methodological approaches:
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Ayman Mir
Transdisciplinary Design MFA, Parsons School of Design
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Christine Chandran
Public Health MPH, University of Pennsylvania
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Imma Honkanen
Sociology PhD, University of Washington
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Jaelle Faison
Educational Psychology PhD, Howard University
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Sarah Oh
Theological Studies and Community Development MTS/MA, Vanderbilt University
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Transdisciplinary Design MFA, Parsons School of Design
Co-designing participatory frameworks and tools to promote reciprocal relationships between community-based organizations and the communities they serve
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Public Health MPH, University of Pennsylvania
Designing systems based on generative AI to support relationships between healthcare workers and the communities they serve
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Sociology PhD, University of Washington
Creating relational spaces within queer nightlife in response to surveillance
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Educational Psychology PhD, Howard University
Using intergroup dialogue as a tool within Global Africa to bridge communication gaps, address miseducation, and increase collective self-determination
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Theological Studies and Community Development MTS/MA, Vanderbilt University
Applying pre-modern Korean aesthetic principles to design interventions for individuals leaving high-control, high-demand religious spaces
Rather than working in isolation, these researchers chose to learn with and from each other in ways that felt different from typical academic collaborations. Instead of dividing up tasks and reporting back findings, they engaged in cogenerative dialogue – essentially, thinking together out loud in ways that honored everyone's voice and experience.
Picture the difference between a traditional research meeting where one person presents their data to others who ask clarifying questions, versus a conversation where everyone brings their partial understandings, uncertainties, and personal connections to the work, and together they discover insights that none of them could have reached alone. In these exchanges, a fellow might share not just what they learned from research, but how those conversations stirred up their own memories or emotions, or how a community member's wisdom challenged assumptions they didn't even know they held. This meant letting go of the familiar academic role of "expert" and embracing what felt more like being a thoughtful neighbor – someone who brings their own experiences and skills to a shared challenge, while remaining genuinely curious about what others might see that they've missed.
Through this process, they discovered that some of their most profound insights came not from formal data collection, but from noticing how their own relationships were shifting as they learned to trust each other with their questions, vulnerabilities, and evolving understandings. In just these seed stages of the fellowship, the knowledge that emerged from this experience proved difficult to capture in any individual researcher's portfolio. Rather, it belonged to their collective journey as scholars of community.
Christine Chandran (Public Health MPH, University of Pennsylvania) described how her contributions came "largely through engaging in conversations and exchanging ideas with my peers. These moments, whether casual or more structured, gave me the chance to bring in my own experiences in health research and public health while also learning from others' approaches." Rather than positioning herself as an expert delivering findings, Christine and her fellow cohort members embraced a model in which she could "pursue a lot of my own research and had the IRH cohort as one outlet to express some of my findings” – creating space for collective exploration rather than one-directional knowledge transfer.
The cumulative effect of this sustained collaborative inquiry was transformative. Through the fellowship, Christine came to understand Integrative Relational Health as a framework that "speaks to the connections between people, systems, and technologies, reminding me that health is never experienced in isolation." This insight transformed her approach to research, particularly her growing focus on health literacy, which she began to see more broadly as a foundation for people to navigate healthcare systems, make decisions with confidence, and advocate for themselves.
“What I found most valuable this summer was not a single dramatic breakthrough, but the accumulation of small moments of curiosity and reflection, each of which helped me to refine my thinking”
— Christine Chandran (IRH Fellow, Public Health, University of Pennsylvania)
Through fellows' conversations over the summer—sometimes in large group video calls, sometimes in smaller pairs, and sometimes in shared online workspaces—five key insights about approaching research through an embodied relational lens began to surface again and again. These weren't abstract theoretical discoveries, but practical realizations about how to do community-engaged research that actually honors the people and communities involved.
Think of these insights as additional tools in a researcher's toolkit rather than replacements for existing methods. Just as a carpenter has many tools depending on the task, researchers can draw on both traditional scholarly approaches and these relationship-centered practices to create more complete and meaningful work.
The fellows discovered that when you pay attention to relationships—both with the communities you're studying and with your fellow researchers—you often uncover insights and ask questions that might not emerge through observation, surveys, or interviews alone.
What made these themes particularly valuable was how they worked together, each one strengthening the others, creating what can be understood as a "Middle Way" of integrative relationality—a recursive spiraling that shifts from mental health to relational health through safe, deep, intentional engagement with what is often incommensurate and incommensurable. This approach to research felt both rigorous and deeply human.
5 Key Insights: Approaching Research Through an Embodied Relational Lens
Through conversations over the summer, five key insights about approaching community-engaged research through an embodied relational lens emerged repeatedly. These research insights didn't operate in isolation but worked together through what the fellows called cascading vulnerability: one person's willingness to show up authentically creating space for others to do the same.
When researchers pay attention to relationships with both communities and fellow researchers, they often uncover questions and insights that observation, surveys, or interviews alone cannot reveal. The fellowship became a living laboratory where personal transformation and community building proved inseparable. Through reflective check-ins, honest conversations about assumptions, and shared commitment to transparency, they created the kind of deep self-reflection that can only happen within supportive relationships. This collective learning process embodied the Middle Way, demonstrating how individual growth and communal knowledge-creation spiral together through sustained, intentional relationship.
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Scholars' identities and lived experiences are not methodological contamination to control for, but essential resources that shape how they understand and engage with communities. Within authentic relational research communities, researchers bring the fullness of who they are—their marginalized identities, cultural backgrounds, and personal histories—recognizing these experiences as valuable data about authenticity, trust, and the complex dynamics of insider-outsider positioning in community-based work.
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Academic institutions both enable and constrain community-focused research, often pulling researchers away from deep relationship-building toward productivity metrics that prioritize outputs over connection. The fellowship created an academic-adjacent space that complements traditional research practices while exploring embodied relational approaches—expanding definitions of legitimate knowledge, success measures, and research methods to value transformation and healing as scholarly outcomes alongside empirical data.
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Relationships themselves constitute a research methodology—not merely the context within which research happens, but the very means through which knowledge is created, validated, and transformed. This relational research approach expands traditional methods by recognizing that knowledge emerging from sustained connection and collaborative inquiry works hand-in-hand with established empirical approaches, creating pathways to understand what can be felt but not easily measured.
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Learning to communicate across disciplines, identities, and methodological traditions challenged fellows to develop relational literacy—paying attention not just to words, but to emotions, body language, and unspoken dynamics. Rather than seeking fixed definitions or smoothing over disagreements, they learned to work with productive tension, discovering that the ongoing process of negotiating meaning together generates insights as valuable as any final definition. Key concepts like trust, respect, and boundaries became living practices rather than abstract principles.
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Creative expression isn't merely an addition to research but often the most direct pathway to understanding identity, healing, and community connection. Art becomes a fundamental research process that accesses aspects of experience traditional academic methods can't reach. Creative approaches like digital galleries, zines, and artistic installations honor community knowledge and storytelling traditions while creating counter-spaces where authentic voices flourish and research becomes accessible beyond academic audiences.