What is Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship?

The term scholarship refers generally to the work faculty, staff and students (“scholars”) undertake on behalf of the university’s academic mission. In this sense, scholarship includes diverse activities related to discovery or knowledge creation, integration or synthesis, teaching and learning, and application.  

At a public flagship and comprehensive research university like CU Boulder, scholarly work is an essential way we achieve our charge to directly benefit the residents and communities of our state and nation.  

Scholarship is public when it connects academic work with non-academic audiences, disseminates findings in ways that are accessible to non-specialists and contributes directly to public conversations and informs matters of public policy.  Such research, teaching and learning, or creative work is community-engaged when it actively involves individuals and communities beyond the university in the production, interpretation or application of knowledge. 

The terms public scholarship and community-engaged scholarship are commonplace in different disciplinary traditions—“public” often being the preferred modifier in the humanities and the arts, “community-engaged” being common in some professional fields and in the social and applied sciences.  

The Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship uses both terms to explicitly include a broad range of scholarly engagement activities that take place across disciplines, fields and academic roles (faculty, staff, and students). This range is represented as a continuum in the graphic below.   

CONTINUUM OF ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP

TO

 

Broadcasting /
Publicizing

Research, teaching or creative work is developed within academic disciplines and fields, generally without collaborating with communities.

Programs share findings and other scholarly products with the public through lectures, videos, websites, blogs, learning materials and more.

FOR

 

Applying /
Translating

Research, teaching or creative work is conducted or adapted for the benefit of a specific community or to address a recognized “problem of practice.”

Programs and products are based on community interests and needs; community members are encouraged to access information and resources.

WITH

 

Collaborating /
Co-constructing

Research, teaching or creative work is conducted with communities; problems, goals and methods are jointly defined by campus and community.

Programs are developed with communities to address jointly defined goals and interests; many university and community stakeholders are involved.

Collaboration and Relationship Building

     

Jan. 2020 • Created by CU Boulder Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship

See diverse examples of public and community-engaged scholarship in action and the partnerships that make it possible. 

 

For those interested in learning more about public and community-engaged scholarship, including its history, terminology, best practices and impact, the following resources are good places to begin: 

  • The , which awards an elective classification for Community-Engaged Universities 
  • , a national organization with a large compilation of research findings and resources on community and civic engagement; CU Boulder is a member  
  • The , another national organization of which CU Boulder is a member