The aim of this dissertation was to apply a decolonizing methodological approach to a community-based research project and to challenge the processes of coloniality embedded in the discipline of family studies. Therefore, this dissertation consists of two distinct studies. The first was a community-based research project that explored how Maya women perceived and experienced womanhood and motherhood in a rural community in Guatemala. Maya womanhood was primarily experienced through three major family dynamics including their childhood upbringing, their relationship with men as adults, and their roles as mothers. The second study of this dissertation was a critical autoethnographic study that centered on the lived experience of the primary investigator of this first study. This critical autoethnography highlights how the doctoral candidate experienced the tensions of being in an institution grounded in neoliberal Eurocentric policies while intentionally building a community-based project with a local collaborator in a Maya community in Guatemala. The findings of this dissertation contribute to decolonial feminist literature and provide insights to fellow scholars, who are committed to social justice, human rights, and challenging the systems that continue to subjugate marginalized communities.
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