Imagining America

The Tangled Web of Diversity and Democracy

George J. Sanchez — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:45 PST

George J. Sanchez, professor of History and American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California, sets forth an important argument about the two pathways to democracy in U.S. higher education: first, engagement by the university through connections of faculty, staff, and students with specific communities and publics; and second, access to the university for members of all communities and publics through inclusive admissions and hiring policies. He challenges our understanding of how engagement and diversity are connected—and how, increasingly, they are becoming disconnected.

The responses of Maria Eugenia Cotera, assistant professor of Latino Studies, Program in American Culture and assistant professor of Women’s Studies, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and Matthew Lassiter, assistant professor of History, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, both of the University of Michigan, are included as well.

Transforming America: The University as Public Good

Nancy Cantor — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:44 PST

Nancy Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University, outlines a number of bold campus-communitypartnerships, many of which were integral to the Brown v. Board of Education Commemoration at the University of Illinois. She makes a passionate case for the arts as “a context for exchange” and “a medium for participation” in a society where “pervasive and longstanding racial divides” exist. In response, Kristina Valaitis, director, Illinois Humanities Council, asks tough, affectionate questions of her university-based colleagues, and offers “suggestions for action,” including some pointed advice on the tenure system

Harlem: Parable of Promise or Peril

Mary Schmidt Campbell — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:42 PST

Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University,tells the story of one institution’s successful struggle to make the impossible merely difficult — to build a museum in a mythic urban ruin and to make that museum a force in both economic development and community empowerment. It is also a case study in democratic culture making, and adds myriad strategies and ideas to our collective tool-kit for the public arts and humanities.

Democratic Vistas for the Humanities

Richard J. Franke — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:41 PST

Richard J. Franke, author, Cut from Whole Cloth, draws from his experience as founding chairman of the Chicago Humanities Festival and as CEO of John Nuveen and Company, to tackle the question, “How do we bring scholars and artists to a larger audience?” Stepping back, he also asks, “Why is it important to reach a larger audience?”

Franke argues here that the humanities can best train citizens to make the complex political, social, and moral decisions that constitute a healthy democracy. Not only are the humanities crucial to the political and social spheres, but also to the professional world where they can strengthen critical thinking, creativity, and leadership. Grappling with the perception of the humanities as elitist, he dismisses the temptation to sacrifice standards of excellence for accessibility and mass appeal. Instead, he offers guidelines on how artists and scholars can engage the public: capitalize on the strengths of scholarly expertise and tradition of debate, hold public discussions about the relation of humanities to citizenship and the public sphere, and emphasize their practical and entertainment value. In short, he writes, “We need to make the humanities available not merely for survival in an increasingly commercial world, but for the sake of democracy.”

The End of the Beginning: Report on the First Two Years

Lee C. Bollinger et al. — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:40 PST

Striving for Integrated Assesssment- A Work in Progress

Imagining America — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:39 PST

Arts of Citizenship/ Public Scholarship at the University of Michigan

Imagining America — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:37 PST

Notes from Break-out Sessions during IA's Plenary on Assessement

Imagining America — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:36 PST

What is the Future of Civic Engagement in Higher Education? Next Generation Engagement: Undergraduates, Graduate Students and Early Career Faculty

Cecilia Orphan et al. — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:35 PST

The Next Generation Engagement Project comprises a cross-disciplinary collection of civically engaged scholars at various stages in their careers. They are exploring new ways to conceptualize the development of the next generation of leaders of civic engagement in higher education. The Next Generation Scholars share their insights, interests, and challenges, and they engage participants in an exploration of strategies for advancing the next generation of engaged scholars and practitioners. Through collaborative book projects, civic seminars and research on the arc of the career of the publicly engaged scholar, the participants have worked over the past year to embody the future of civic engagement through the development of interdisciplinary structures, mentorship for graduate students and early career faculty, development of graduate programs, and the support of early career faculty.

Inciting the Social Imagination: Education Reseach for the Public Good

M. Christopher Brown II — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:34 PST

Publicly Engaged Scholarship (PES) is emerging as a paradigm expanding notions about knowledge production and a methodological toolkit for impactful, interdisciplinary, scholarly practice. While a growing literature provides evidence for its efficacy, more is needed to specify key dimensions. Shaped around findings from a national study exploring the aspirations and decisions of graduate students and early career professionals, this research symposium brings together key individual and institutional aspects of PES. The second paper presents insights from the first year of an innovative college model designed around core principles of PES. Employing a conceptual approach, two additional papers in turn, interrogate the role of “activism” in scholarship and present conceptual framing for knowledge production and institutional change in the 21st Century.

Pathways and Career Aspirations of Graduate Students and Early Career Publicly Engaged Scholars: A Mixed-method Study

Tim Eatman et al. — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:33 PST

Laying the Groundwork for the TTI Impact Study: Purposes, Values, Concepts

Julie Ellison et al. — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:32 PST

This document is part of an ongoing cycle of writing and comment designed to help us imagine forward into the work of the new Scholarship and Tenure Policy Research Group (TTI-RG). Here we aim to set a tone, to create an ethos, and to begin to craft a shared language for participants. Our process, therefore, both models and seeks to inform the processes of policy change.

We want to set before the Fellows a more precise framing of our principles and purposes. If the initial dialogues among the Fellows and organizational partners can establish agreement on the larger purposes and guiding concepts of our work, we will do a better job of establishing the impact of IA's Tenure Team Initiative on Public Scholarship (TTI), and our subsequent recommendations will carry more force.

We report here on the groundwork that we have been preparing since the planning for the Research Group, initially categorized as a TTI-RG, began in October 2010. We suggest principles and strategies that, refined through further conversation, should guide the research. Above all, we propose that the TTI-RG assess faculty rewards systems as dynamic elements in the larger set of co-dependent relationships among (1) diverse, engaged student bodies; (2) diverse, engaged faculties; and (3) diverse, engaged communities.

An Exit With a View

Timothy Eatman — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:00:30 PST

Full Participation: Building the Architecture for Diversity and Community Engagement in Higher Education

Susan Strum et al. — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:10:26 PDT

Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University

Julie Ellison et al. — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:10:25 PDT

The Engaged Humanities: Principles and Practices of Public Scholarship and Teaching

Gregory Jay — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:10:23 PDT

Will public scholarship and community engagement become central to revitalizing the humanities in the 21st century? Efforts to connect humanities research and teaching with projects to advance democracy, social justice, and the public good might take advantage of the latest episode of crisis, and even argue that they represent a strong new direction for revival. After a brief review of how definitions of the humanities have changed since the 1960s, the essay contends that the future of the humanities depends upon two interrelated innovations: the organized implementation of projectbased engaged learning and scholarship, on the one hand, and the continued advancement of digital and new media learning and scholarship, on the other hand. A number of examples of engaged humanities practice are examined, their institutional obstacles analyzed, and the principles common to them enumerated. The conclusion focuses on how new media are changing the nature of “the public” once more, offering opportunities for different kinds of scholarship, teaching, and engagement.

Design in the Public Interest - The Dilemma of Professionalism

Rob Corser — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:10:21 PDT

Culture and Community Development in Higher Education

Arlene Goldbard — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:10:19 PDT

Imagining America- Engaged Scholarship for the Arts, Humanities, and Design

Robin Goettel et al. — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:08:43 PDT

Notes from Break-out Sessions during IA’s Plenary on Assessment October 2, 2009

Imagining America — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:08:41 PDT

Imagining America's recent national conference in New Orleans featured a plenary on Assessing the Practices of Public Scholarship (APPS). Panelists made “state of the field” remarks concerning engaged courses and projects in the arts, humanities, and design, as well as across these fields and as incorporated into social sciences and other disciplines. Facilitated break-out groups then discussed current methods of evaluating public scholarship for faculty, students, and community members, as well as metrics for tracking institutional change, and strategies for IA’s future research and delivery on this topic. The break-out group facilitators asked the following questions, which are followed by the most recurring responses and some miscellaneous remarks from participants.