Justice Labs

Justice Labs are opportunities for undergraduate students to join teams of faculty, grad students, fellow undergrads, and community partners to do research on questions and needs identified by communities.

We have developed labs focusing on mass incarceration, labor, and housing. Look at our courses page to see what labs are currently being offered.

Housing and the Common Good Research Lab

Male student on right gestures and speaks while Professor Margie Pfeil and three female students listen in classroom with light blue walls.

This course first establishes an account of the historical roots of the affordable housing crisis in the United States, paying particular attention to the local Michiana context. It also introduces students to the housing “continuum of care” in the City of South Bend, noting the various institutional and governmental agencies currently involved in addressing housing needs as well as the gaps in coverage, e.g. the need for a permanent low-barrier intake center. The second part of the course involves community engagement as students help to plan and organize a day-long conference on the local housing continuum of care. Students have the opportunity to follow up on the fruits of that conference, networking with area housing agencies and local government entities and researching best practices in other urban areas. During this segment of the course, students have the opportunity to engage with experts in the field, both virtually and in person, funded by research monies. This work will lead into their own constructive proposals for a concrete contribution to meeting the current affordable and supportive housing needs in South Bend and St. Joseph County more broadly.

Just Wage Research Lab

Female student speaks in classroom

This interdisciplinary research lab enlists students in the efforts of the Just Wage Initiative (JWI), a collaborative research and advocacy project of the Higgins Labor Program at the Institute for Social Concerns. Students help develop, refine, and update the Just Wage Framework, a multi-stakeholder online tool designed to advance a more inclusive and equitable economy. Students also undertake research projects connecting their own intellectual interests and disciplinary expertise to the JWI’s foundational question: What makes any given wage just or unjust? In addition, students collaborate with the instructor and local, national, and international practitioners to envision and execute collaborative research and advocacy campaigns to promote a just wage economy. Extended weekly class sessions feature visits by scholars and activists, as well as facilitate interactive group discussions and collaborative experiments.

Mass Incarceration Research Lab

Wide shot of classroom with students gathered around rectangle of tables

This research lab employs an interdisciplinary approach to research on a range of issues related to mass incarceration. Collaborating with faculty, scholars, activists, practitioners, those impacted by systems of incarceration, and other classmates, students develop, refine, and implement a research project which contributes to the overall body of scholarship on incarceration. Students are able to design projects (exploring moral, normative, and/or empirical, etc., dimensions of incarceration) which connect their own academic and intellectual interests to emerging research questions at the Institute for Social Concerns.