A part of 2.2: Lightning Talk session.

Promoting Knowledge Translation and Engagement with Social Justice Issues Through a Digital Policy Brief
Julius Haag, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Sociology, UTM

Bringing academic knowledge into dialogue with policy issues and diverse publics remains central in sociology and criminology (Buroway, 2004). Further, the current climate of ‘post-truth’ has presented unique challenges to scholars and a pressing need to broadly share our findings and be active participants in public debates (Peterson, 2016). In my 3rd year ‘Sociology of Crime’ course, I asked students to develop digital policy briefs that addressed a current social justice issue using the Greater Toronto Area as a lens. These policy briefs explored a diverse range of topics, and students were given considerable discretion in identifying a subject relevant to them. The digital policy brief encouraged students to think critically and broadly about their topic and apply their academic knowledge to develop evidence-based policy recommendations. This assignment employs a multimodal design that supports writing by having students engage with issues they find personally relevant or interesting and by drawing on various communication strategies not typically featured in a more conventional brief. The assignment then asks students to consider how different digital technologies can facilitate knowledge translation and aid in conveying complex concepts to non-academic audiences. Additionally, given the complex demands of online learning, students self-selected their due date, allowing flexibility while encouraging planning and time management. In this session, I will briefly review the assignment structure, strategies for integrating and modelling assignment objectives, examples of student work and feedback, and scalability discussions in other settings.

Peterson, R.D. (2016). Interrogating Race, Crime, and Justice in a Time of Unease and Racial Tension. Criminology, 55(2), 245-272.

Burawoy, M. (2005). For Public Sociology. American Sociological Review, 70(1), 4-28.