September 5, 2025
Lisa García Bedolla, Center for Research for Social Change faculty affiliate, explains community-engaged research in this 101 video, a series that challenges Berkeley experts to distill their work into a mere 101 seconds. As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley she spent time as a tutor in the city's public school system, changing her life and her professional trajectory. “I’m really interested in why people choose to be political, and it just seemed to not make sense to not actually ask the people, who I’m interested in studying, what their thoughts, feelings and engagement are,” says García Bedolla. Community-engaged research is deeply intertwined with the people whose lives and experiences are being studied from beginning to end.