Natalie Kivell

Dr. Natalie Kivell’s research is grounded in methodologies and epistemologies of resistance. She seeks to understand the ways in which community driven and participatory knowledge construction and theory building can resist and dismantle the rigidities of the academy. Grounded in critical frameworks of abolition, disability justice, and radical care Dr. Kivell uses qualitative, participatory, and action oriented research to bear witness to, document, and catalyze transformation in social movement and grassroots activist spaces. Her research, practice, and community engagement have consistently focused on social justice, disrupting systems of power, developing and studying participatory social interventions, and engaging in systematic ways to create and disseminate knowledge driven by the community and individuals with lived experience.

She has a long history of doing radio and podcasting (2014-present) as a modality of knowledge mobilization, relational community building, and the visibilizing of contextually rooted and globally relevant storytelling, theorizing, and everyday praxis. Most recently she is the host of Indaba: A Global Critical Community Psychology podcast constructed with an international research collective that she built in partnership with Dr. Christopher Sonn (Australia) with additional collaborators in South Africa, Indonesia, Chile, Palestine, and the United States. Indaba can be found at https://internationalcommunitypsychology.com/indaba/ or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Dr. Kivell's current projects include: Global knowledge mobilization through media activism and podcasting, participatory theorizing and social transformation as it relates to mutual aid and abolition; building and applying theory and participatory and critical methodologies to synthesize, assess, and mobilize community generated knowledge; and engaging in and studying intersectional social movements.

In my research, teaching, media activism and life, I seek out opportunities to be a part of and cultivate healthy, just, and connected communities.

• Society for Community Research and Action Scholar (2020-2022)
• Alma H. Young Emerging Scholar Award, presented by the Urban Affairs Association (2018)
• Society for Community Research and Action Dissertation Research Grant (2017)
• Racial and Social Justice SCRA Mini-grant (2016)
• School of Education and Human Development Teaching Fellowships for two Academic Years (2015 & 2016)
• Rosen Doctoral Fellowship (2013-2017)

I am interested in advising students (undergraduate and graduate) who are interested in social transformation, social movements, centring community knowledge and lived experience, using research to challenge structural and social injustice, or who are interested in using creative and arts based methodologies in their research and action. 

• Kivell, N., Sonn, C. C., Madyaningrum, M. E., Daher, M., Stevens, G., Barhouche, R. & S. Keast (2025) “We are not alone in the world”: Creating possibilities for transnational radical relationality, epistemic justice, and expanded ecologies of knowledge through the Indaba podcast. American Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001495
• Wilson, C. & Kivell, N. (2025). “The Ethics of Care in a Pandemic: Weaving Together Anti-Racist Practice and Disability Justice in our Community-Engaged Work”. In S. R. Poyntz, K, Grain, and A Johal l (Ed.), Critical Futures: Community Engaged Research in a Time of Crisis and Social Transformation.
• DaViera, A. L., Bailey, C., Lakind, D., Kivell, N., Areguy, F. & Byrd, K. (2024). Awakening abolitionist possibilities in Community Psychology: A path toward transformation. American Journal of Community Psychology.
• Kivell, N., Sharma, R., Ranco, S. & Singh, A. K. (2022). Toward a community psychology transformative praxis: A descriptive review. American Journal of Community Psychology, 1-26. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.22949
• Wilson, C. L., Singh, A. K., Beals, A. M., Sharma, R., Hunt, B., Furman, E., Darko, N., Fante-Coleman, T., Liu, V. & Kivell, N. (2021) Dialogues of disruption: Confronting oppression in the academy. Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice.
• Kivell, N., Evans, S.D. & Paterson, S. (2017). Community power structure analysis and the ethical considerations of “studying up”. American Journal of Community Psychology. Special Issue on Ethical Considerations, 60(3-4):467-475

• PS282 Introduction to Community Psychology 
• PS398 Qualitative Research Methods
• PS482: Seminar in Community Psychology
• PS887: Application of Social Science Theories to Community Issues