Annual Engaged Scholarship Symposium
Past Symposia
2025
Bridging The Public Divide Through University-Community Partnerships, Friday March 21
Clinical and Translational Research Building, Health Science Campus
9:00am-3:00pm
The theme for the 2025 Engaged Scholarship Symposium is Bridging the Public Divide through University-Community Partnerships. There is a divide between the university and the public. Universities are seen as distant, irrelevant, and generally not a part of the community. We need to demonstrate the connection between higher education and the public at large through, engaged-research, engaged-teaching, and outreach activities. The 2025 Engaged Scholarship Symposium seek to explore the various ways higher education is bridging the divide with the public through the many collaborative projects occurring with faculty, staff, students, and the general public.
Keynote Speaker Bobbie Laur is President of Campus Compact, the nation’s largest national organization dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement. Bobbie’s passion, research, and work have been grounded in the place-based mission of higher education and the necessity of developing mutually beneficial partnerships to address the needs for the communities and neighborhoods in which universities and colleges are located. With deep experience in the institutionalization of community engagement and creating institution-wide strategies to advance the work, Bobbie has counseled and supported campuses throughout the country in creating sustainable structures and pathways to strengthen civic and community engagement. Bobbie previously served as the Executive Director of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities and held several administrative positions at San Diego State University and Towson University, including serving as the Associate Vice President for Outreach. Bobbie serves on a number of national and Baltimore-based boards that advocate for creating vibrant and healthy communities.
2024
Community-University Collaboration: Working in Partnership with Our Community, Friday March 22,
Founders Union Building, Shelby Campus
9:00am-5:00pm
The theme for the 2024 Engaged Scholarship Symposium is Community-University Collaboration: Working in Partnership with Our Community. There are many university-community collaborations taking place through engaged-research, engaged-teaching, and outreach activities. These collaborations are making a difference in the lives of community members, our students, and our faculty.
The 2024 Engaged Scholarship Symposium explores the various ways the community and university are collaborating on projects to address disparities in the community and the ways we are positively impacting communities we work with.
Communities and universities working in partnership is not just a choice; it is an imperative for creating solutions for complex societal challenges, both local and global. We will explore the transformative power of collaboration as both strategy and scholarship. By adopting a community-centric approach to developing strategies; inclusivity, responsiveness, and innovation can be fostered. Collaborative engaged scholarship that goes beyond conventional academic boundaries can create a dynamic ecosystem where learning and action coalesce. Let's respond to the call and work towards a dynamic future where collaboration becomes a critical cornerstone
Keynote Speak Lorilee R. Sandmann, Ph.D., is professor emerita in Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy at The University of Georgia (UGA), USA. For 50 years, she held administrative, faculty, extension, and outreach positions at the University of Minnesota, Michigan State University, Cleveland State University, as well as The University of Georgia. She is also the former editor of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement. Dr. Sandmann’s research, teaching, writing, advising, evaluating, and consulting focus on leadership and organizational change in higher education, emphasizing the institutionalization of community engagement and faculty roles and rewards related to community-engaged scholarship. She received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement and UGA’s Outstanding Faculty Scholarship of Engagement Award. She has been inducted into the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship and the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame. She was the co-director of the National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement. She has led the Engagement Academy for University Leaders and currently serves on its faculty. She is also a core reviewer and is on the National Advisory Committee for the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement. Dr. Sandmann holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.\ She can be reached at sandmann@uga.edu
2023
Making a Difference through University-Community Collaborations, Friday March 24
Chao Auditorium, Belknap Campus
9am-2:30pm
The Annual Engaged Scholarship Symposium is an opportunity to network and share current research and teaching activities involving community partners and service to the community. Please join us for a day of panel presentations, lightning talks, and recognition of UofL faculty in community-engaged scholarship and sustainability.
Keynote Speaker Dr. Marisol Morales currently serves as the Executive Director of the Carnegie Elective Classifications for the American Council on Education (ACE). In this role Morales provides conceptual leadership and operational oversight to the Carnegie Elective Classifications. This includes the collaborative development of and responsibility for all initiatives, oversight and facilitation of relevant national and international advisory committees, conceptualizing and implementing extensive data archives as well as developing and enacting a shared vision regarding access to and use of the knowledge produced by the Carnegie Elective Classifications to beneficially guide research, policy, and practice. Prior to this role she was the Vice President for Network Leadership at Campus Compact, from 2018-2022. Morales was the Founding Director of the Office of Civic and Community Engagement at the University of La Verne from 2013-2018 and the Associate Director of the Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning and Community Service Studies at DePaul University from 2005-2013. In 2020, she was appointed as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Community-Engaged Scholarship at University of Central Florida and also serves as an adjunct faculty in the ENLACE Higher Education Master’s program at Northeastern Illinois University. Morales sits on the editorial board of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, on the editorial advisory board of Liberal Education, a publication of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and on the board of the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE). Locally, she serves as the chair of the Puerto Rican Agenda of Chicago’s Education subcommittee and on the alumni board of the Center for Latino Research and the Latin American and Latino Studies program at DePaul University. Dr. Morales holds a BA in Latin American/Latino Studies and a MS/MS in International Public Service Management both from DePaul University. She earned her Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership from the University of La Verne. Her dissertation focused on the community engagement experiences of Latinx students at a Hispanic Serving Institution.
2022
Community Engagement During the Pandemic, Friday March 25
Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library, Belknap Campus
9:00am - noon
Faculty Fellows in The Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society will reflect on what engaged scholarship means to them and what it looks like in their work, particularly during the time of Covid-19, which greatly impacted the way we engaged with community partners. The Fellows will also share their vision for engaged scholarship at UofL.
2021
Seeking Cultural Humility in Justice-Based Community Engagement, Friday March 26
Virtual Meeting, 10:00am – 3:00pm
The Annual Engaged Scholarship Symposium is an opportunity to network and share current research and teaching activities involving community partners and service to the community. Please join us for a half day of panel presentations, lightning talks, and recognition of UofL faculty receiving national awards in community-engaged scholarship.
Keynote Speaker Dr. Darren Lund’s talk will offer a timely reminder that this work of attending to difference is not simply about pursuing harmony with our colleagues, students, and community partners. Bringing about social and institutional changes toward racial equity requires thoughtful advocacy and even some professional risk. Dr. Lund will offer specific insights and ideas from his three decades of work on social justice activism and human rights. He will address notions of privilege, and the need to attend to our own complex identities in community engaged work. His presentation will highlight research from a community-driven university education program that seeks to foster cultural humility in pre-service teachers. For over a decade, the award-winning Service Learning for Diversity Program has worked collaboratively with community agencies that serve diverse young people, including immigrant and refugee children, youth with disabilities, LGBTQ2+ youth, and Native/Indigenous youth. Participants can expect a lively talk that includes meaningful take-aways and resources for a range of settings, as well as some time for questions and answers.
2019
Community-Engaged Scholarship: Documentation and Review, Thursday, March 7
Shumaker Research Building, Belknap Campus
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
The Annual Engaged Scholarship Symposium is an opportunity to network and share current research and teaching activities involving community partners and service to the community. Sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Community Engagement and the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.
2018
Navigating Community Engagement & Engaged Scholarship: Faculty Experiences from Across the University, Tuesday, March 20
Shumaker Research Building, Belknap Campus
11:30 AM- 1:30 PM
This three-part symposium will focus on how to use community engaged work for promotion and tenure as well as provide opportunities for small group discussions on topics related to interdisciplinary/interprofessional engagement and engaged scholarship.
Part 1: Plenary Session - Overview and public launch of a searchable database on community engagement activities. Part 2: Promotion and Tenure Panel Session – Based on their own experiences, panelists will share tips and ideas on how to properly document engagement for promotion and tenure. Part 3: Break-out sessions – Small groups will explore a cross section of topics related to community engagement and engaged scholarship