The Department of Communication has launched the Center for Local Strategies Research at the University of Washington. Professor Gerry Philipsen and Dr. Lisa Coutu, faculty members in the Department, serve as, respectively, Director and Associate Director of the Center.

Philipsen and Coutu are working with scholars who are conducting ethnographical research to develop ways for improving lives in communities, at home and abroad.

There are ten Associate Scholars working around the world, learning from and dealing with problems indigenous to those areas. Some current projects of the Center’s Associate Scholars include security in post-conflict regions, negotiations of services by refugees and displaced persons living in a host community, efforts to reduce school dropout rates in economically distressed districts, efforts of patients to navigate the difficult shoals of organized medical systems, and participation by citizens in the design and implementation of local services and community-improvement programs.

The scholars are researching and strategizing how to make a change for the better in such situations. Philipsen said a deliberate approach to problems helps to develop ideas for more possibilities and better outcomes. The Center was designed to spark fresh conversation that is too often neglected in, but crucial to the success of projects that aim to affect the lives of people in their communities. The ultimate goals are to learn from the methodologies applied to these projects, find ways to improve them, and be able to pass this new information forward.

The Center for Local Strategies Research intends to expand its team of Associate Scholars from the Department of Communication and from other schools across the world to increase the global reach of the Center’s work.

To find out more about the work of the Center, visit www.localstrategiesresearch.washington.edu.

-By Amanda Weber