Reimagining Partnerships Between Black Communities and Academic Health Research Institutions: Towards Equitable Power in Engagement

Community-Engaged Research (CER) arose as a means of increasing the democratic participation of communities that study outcomes directly impact. CER has been identified as a recommended approach for conducting biomedical and behavioral health research with Black communities, a population that has been excluded from and exploited by academic health research for centuries. However, solely increasing community participation without identifying and redressing racialized power imbalances within community–academic partnerships involving Black populations can stall progress towards racial health equity. The purpose of this study was to explore how power can be redistributed equitably in community–academic health research partnerships involving Black populations. Utilizing the qualitative methodological approach of critical narrative inquiry, counter-stories from 12 Black individuals who have served as community partners on U.S.-based academic health research teams were collected via in-depth semi-structured narrative interviews. A reflexive thematic analysis approach was utilized to identify and analyze strategies expressed by study participants for increasing community agency, efficacy, and solidarity in health research. By centering the voices of Black community members who have directly engaged with academic health research institutions, this study sought to amplify the desires and aspirations of Black communities regarding shifting power in health research processes and outcomes.