Welcome to The DEAR Lab
The Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Laboratory is led by Dr. Colin Rhinesmith, Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences. The DEAR Lab engages in community-engaged and participatory research to advance digital equity in Illinois and worldwide. We partner with community-based organizations, government agencies, philanthropic organizations, and other entities to advance mutually-beneficial research initiatives that support those most impacted by digital inequities. Learn more about the DEAR Lab.
| What is Digital Equity? | What is Action Research? |
| “Digital equity refers to the state where every person and community has the necessary information technology resources to participate in society, democracy, and the economy fully.” – Internet Society Foundation | “Action Research is social research carried out by a team that encompasses a professional action researcher and the members of an organization, community, or network (“stakeholders”) who are seeking to improve the participants’ situation.” – Greenwood & Levin (2007) |
Land Acknowledgement
The Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Lab would like to recognize and acknowledge that we are on the lands of the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankashaw, Wea, Miami, Mascoutin, Odawa, Sauk, Mesquaki, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Chickasaw Nations. These lands were the traditional territory of these Native Nations prior to their forced removal; these lands continue to carry the stories of these Nations and their struggles for survival and identity. As a land-grant institution, the University of Illinois has a particular responsibility to acknowledge the peoples of these lands, as well as the histories of dispossession that have allowed for the growth of this institution for the past 150 years. We are also obligated to reflect on and actively address these histories and the role that this university has played in shaping them. This acknowledgement and the centering of Native peoples is a start as we move forward for the next 150 years.
– UIUC Land Acknowledgement (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion)