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Engaged scholarship: An approach to transforming the public university by building and applying knowledge in ways that both inform social change and reflect critically on the politics of knowledge itself.

Next Thursday (March 7), Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter hosts a public symposium on the prospects and pitfalls of this approach.

Organizer Jonathan London, assistant professor in the Department of Human Ecology and director of the Center for Regional Change, said key questions will include: How can the university develop and sustain collaborative research partnerships with underrepresented communities? How can we ensure rigor and independence of engaged scholarship? What are the individual and institutional capacities necessary for effective engaged scholarship? 

The symposium, the latest installment in the Provost’s Forums on the Public University and the Social Good, is called “Contested Politics of Knowledge in the Public University.”

Said London: “Embedded within broader social relations, the public university is enrolled in a diverse range of political, economic and cultural projects. Understanding the forces shaping these projects and the stakes for their outcomes is necessary to build agency for institutional transformation. One such approach to the transformation of the public university is through scholarship that engages with the issues and actors driving social change.”

The morning program, 10 a.m. to noon, starts with George Lipsitz, professor of sociology and black studies at UC Santa Barbara, giving a keynote address, and then moderating a panel discussion. The panelists: Jesus Hernandez, a lecturer and visiting scholar at �ٺ���Ƶ, where he received a doctorate in sociology; Milton Reynolds, a senior program associate with Facing History and Ourselves, a global organization that combats racism, anti-Semitism and prejudice, and nurtures democracy; and Young Shin of Asian Immigrant Women Advocates, which is committed to developing the collective leadership of low-income immigrant women and youth to organize for positive changes in their living and working conditions.

The afternoon session, 1 to 3 p.m., comprises a talk by Ken Reardon, professor and director, City and Regional Planning graduate program, University of Memphis; and thematic workshops with faculty, students and community partners.

The symposium resumes at 5 p.m. at the Odd Fellows Hall in downtown Davis for the closing keynote, “The Modern University: Engagement Outside, Contests Inside,” by Nancy Cantor, chancellor and president, Syracuse University.

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi will introduce Cantor, and there will be a light reception after Cantor’s address, until 7 p.m.

Co-sponsors: the Center for Regional Change, Community and Regional Development (part of the Department of Human Ecology), the �ٺ���Ƶ Humanities Institute, and the Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California.

The symposium is free and open to the public. The morning and afternoon programs will be held in the multipurpose room at the Student Community Center. The Odd Fellows Hall, venue for the evening program, is at 415 Second St., Davis.

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