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FIE TIG Week: Shaking up the Evaluation Patriarchy: AEA Womanists/ Feminists Coming Together to Claim Power and Place in the Academy by Kathleen Doll, Libby Smith, & Vidhya Shanker

Leave a Comment / Feminist Issues in Evaluation / November 14, 2020

Hi! We’re Libby Smith, Kathleen Doll, and Vidhya Shanker. Join us on a walk down memory lane to November 2019… An editorial trio of white women evaluators (including Libby and Kathleen) set out to publish a journal volume on intersectionality—a term that originated in Black Feminist Thought and among queer women of color. This group …

FIE TIG Week: Shaking up the Evaluation Patriarchy: AEA Womanists/ Feminists Coming Together to Claim Power and Place in the Academy by Kathleen Doll, Libby Smith, & Vidhya Shanker Read More »

The invisible labor of women of color and indigenous women in evaluation, Part 2 by Vidhya Shanker

2 Comments / Feminist Issues in Evaluation, Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation, Multiethnic Issues in Evaluation, Research on Evaluation, Teaching of Evaluation / June 17, 2020

Vidhya Shanker of Minneapolis here, with another attempt to repair the miseducation of evaluators regarding the contributions of women of color and indigenous women, particularly their understanding of systemic oppression, to evaluation’s history. Today I highlight Dr. Kien Lee, Principal Associate/Vice President of Community Science. Lee has advanced not just a structural analysis, but also …

The invisible labor of women of color and indigenous women in evaluation, Part 2 by Vidhya Shanker Read More »

The Invisible Labor of Women of Color and Indigenous Women in Evaluation by Vidhya Shanker

9 Comments / Feminist Issues in Evaluation, Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation, Multiethnic Issues in Evaluation, Research on Evaluation, Teaching of Evaluation / March 5, 2020

I’m Vidhya Shanker from Rainbow Research, where we are exploring what structural change really means. I’m sometimes asked, “Why are there so few people of color in evaluation?” I flip the question: “Why is evaluation so white?” And answer: “Because our labor is actively erased.” Of the 35 recipients of the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Evaluation …

The Invisible Labor of Women of Color and Indigenous Women in Evaluation by Vidhya Shanker Read More »

A place for solitude, community, and healing for attendees who identify as Indigenous, Black, and People of Color (IBPOC) at Evaluation 2019! by Elizabeth Taylor-Schiro/Bidabinikwe, Leah Peoples, Geri Lynn Peak, Ivan Lopez, Vidhya Shanker, and Dane Verret

5 Comments / Uncategorized / November 11, 2019

Happy Evaluation 2019! This post, and the space that it discusses, were created collaboratively by and on behalf of members of the evaluation community who have experienced exclusion and harm in professional spaces and in cooperation with AEA: Elizabeth Taylor-Schiro/Bidabinikwe of AEA’s IPE TIG and the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center; Leah Peoples of the …

A place for solitude, community, and healing for attendees who identify as Indigenous, Black, and People of Color (IBPOC) at Evaluation 2019! by Elizabeth Taylor-Schiro/Bidabinikwe, Leah Peoples, Geri Lynn Peak, Ivan Lopez, Vidhya Shanker, and Dane Verret Read More »

A Look at Language Week: Tidying Evaluation of “Diversity” & “Culture” by Vidhya Shanker

2 Comments / Uncategorized / June 23, 2019

Vidhya Shanker from Rainbow Research here. Inspired by Marie Kondo, who advises keeping only what touches our hearts, I offer evaluation two words to discard. Diversity: Descended from business, “diversity” was introduced in evaluation in the late 1980s by AEA president Ross Conner. Conner explicitly expressed concern regarding the representation of women—where he felt AEA …

A Look at Language Week: Tidying Evaluation of “Diversity” & “Culture” by Vidhya Shanker Read More »

FIE TIG Week: Applying Intersectionality to Program Theory: Gender-Based Violence & Violence Against Women by Vidhya Shanker

2 Comments / Feminist Issues in Evaluation, Uncategorized / March 3, 2019

Vidhya Shanker here, from Rainbow Research. Previously, I explained intersectionality—despite cooptation by contemporary organizations vying for funding—as a centuries-old concept borne from subjugated knowledge and liberation struggles as valuable for situation analyses. Today, I examine intersectionality’s value in relation to certain dimensions of program theory. Lessons Learned: Before becoming an evaluator, I spent years fighting …

FIE TIG Week: Applying Intersectionality to Program Theory: Gender-Based Violence & Violence Against Women by Vidhya Shanker Read More »

FIE TIG Week: What is intersectionality and how can evaluators do it? (Part 1: Situation Analysis) by Vidhya Shanker

1 Comment / Feminist Issues in Evaluation / March 3, 2018

Greetings from Vidhya Shanker, independent evaluation consultant and PhD candidate in Evaluation Studies at the University of Minnesota. Intersectionality is sometimes misunderstood and misused to suggest that oppression based on gender is the same as—or better or worse than—oppression based on race, class, ability status, or other dimensions along which society structures power dynamics. Understanding …

FIE TIG Week: What is intersectionality and how can evaluators do it? (Part 1: Situation Analysis) by Vidhya Shanker Read More »

IPE TIG Week: On the Slipperiness of Culture by Vidhya Shanker

Leave a Comment / Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation / November 19, 2017

Greetings! I’m Vidhya Shanker, a doctoral candidate in Evaluation Studies at the University of Minnesota. Writing during Thanksgiving week, from the birthplace of the American Indian Movement—surrounded by the largest urban Native and largest refugee communities–as the daughter of immigrants from a colonized country, I offer this exploration of culture to everyone committed to struggles …

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MNEA Week: Vidhya Shanker on AEA 2012: Minnesota’s Constituent-led Organizations Represent!

Leave a Comment / Multiethnic Issues in Evaluation / September 28, 2012

Vidhya Shanker here and I serve on the Local Arrangements Committee. Minnesota’s Scandinavian history is common knowledge, but our state is also home to the largest urban indigenous population in the country. Beyond a rich African American history, we also have the country’s largest Hmong and Somali populations and a growing Latin@ population. The Committee …

MNEA Week: Vidhya Shanker on AEA 2012: Minnesota’s Constituent-led Organizations Represent! Read More »

Scribing: Vidhya Shanker on Lessons Learned from Evaluation Leaders

2 Comments / Uncategorized / May 15, 2011

This is Vidhya Shanker, a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota. At Evaluation 2010, I served as a scribe for Roundtable Presentation 111, Maximizing Our Collective Talent: Conversations with Senior Evaluators, which brought evaluation leaders together with novice and mid-career evaluators to engage in evaluation discourse around 8 different issue tables. I chose it …

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