Colleges’ Commitment to Positive Research Impact
Celebrating public scholarship and externally funded engaged scholarship for local and global impact
On Friday, April 5, 2024, the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), College of Education (COE), and Herff College of Engineering (HERFF) co-sponsored an event highlighting our colleges’ commitment to research to positively impact communities locally and internationally. The session included a faculty presenter from each college. Co-chairs of the Engaged Scholarship Faculty Network, Dr. Alison Happel-Parkins (Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Research) and Dr. Diana Ruggiero (Department of World Languages and Literatures) opened the event. They provided a history of the organization and prior university support for internal engaged scholarship grant opportunities, and they shared current priorities, including pairing new faculty with an experienced engaged scholar for mentoring and providing pathways for making community connections.
Dr. Katherine Lambert-Pennington (Department of Anthropology and Director of School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy) represented CAS and discussed the importance of incremental knowledge and relationship building. She illustrated how her funding for one collaboration started with a study abroad in the Simeto Valley in Sicily, which led to a faculty research grant, and was followed by a Fulbright Scholar Program award.
Dr. Stephanie Ivey (Department of Civil Engineering and Associate Dean of the Herff College of Engineering) represented HERFF, and her presentation highlighted the importance of the Strengthening Communities Initiative, a prior collaboration with the University of Memphis, the United Way, and the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, in her collaboration with the Rozelle-Annesdale Neighborhood. This collaboration has led to other projects including “Safe Routes to School,” “Livability in Freight-Centric Communities,” the West TN STEM Hub, and the T-STEM Academy at East High School.
Dr. Laura Casey (Department of Instruction and Curriculum Leadership) represented COE. Her presentation focused on three state-funded grants that directly address working with children and families and early intervention framework primarily under the adaptive and social-emotional/behavioral areas. These grants (Project Memphis Home & Community, Project Memphis Center-based, and the Regional Intervention program) offer progressive supports for children aged 0-6 years and their families for participants to transition through each intervention in order to be ready to integrate into classroom activities and routines.
Dr. Roger Kreuz (Department of Psychology) closed the session with a presentation on The Conversation as a method for promoting public scholarship through writing in a non-academic venue. These articles are often picked up by a news agency and shared globally. Dr. Kreuz is currently the University of Memphis’ author with the highest “reads” count, with his November 2020 article on “The Complicated origin of the expression ‘peanut gallery’ reaching 116,000 reads.
Individuals who are interested in learning more about the Engaged Scholarship Faculty Network can contact Dr. Alison Happel-Parkins at Aahappel@memphis.edu and Dr. Diana Ruggiero at dianaR@memphis.edu.
For those looking for ways to fund their engaged scholarship, the College of Arts and Sciences research funding page includes some opportunities: https://www.memphis.edu/cas/research/funding-opps.php
The College of Arts and Sciences website also provides information on publishing with The Conversation: https://www.memphis.edu/cas/research/publishing-networking.php