Defining Public Scholarship Any definition of public scholarship must balance both the Universitys obligation to establish and maintain reciprocal relations with communities, service providing agencies, industries, and civic organizations in Minnesota and the world with the Universitys core commitments to academic freedom and basic research and cutting-edge scholarship and creation.

Defining Public Scholarship. At the level of the institution, public scholarship means optimizing the extent to which University research informs and is informed by the public good, maximizes the generation and transfer of knowledge and technology, educates the public about what research the University does, and listens to the public about what research needs to be done. This scholarship contributes to the intellectual and social capital of the University and the State (and larger regions), and includes (but is not limited to) the transfer of knowledge and technology that contributes to improved quality of life for significant portions of the populous.

Doing academia in public view is both a powerful tool and a potentially powerful weapon.

There is no buffer in public writing.

And for many readers the allure of attacking the writer instead of the work is too seductive to deny. That can be a shock when you are accustomed to the civil discourse, no matter how thin or banal, that governs academic critique.

By Public Scholarship we mean bringing the best thinking and research to bear on the most critical issues facing society today.  Public Scholarship also entails a commitment to publishing letters, op-eds, and articles in newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, and other forms of social media to raise awareness about these issues, to stimulate broad discussion, and to explore the role timely scholarship can play in addressing our most challenging problems. Public scholars strive to communicate simply and clearly to a wide audience, and therefore adopt a journalistic style in which sentences are crisp, paragraphs are brief, and jargon is employed sparingly. While public scholars embrace theory and sophisticated research approaches, they particularly seek to translate theory into practice and to use research findings to shed compelling light on the causes and the effects of pressing social issues. Public scholars also recognize that social issues which affect the broadest range of people matter most. Consequently, issues of poverty, hunger, access to education and healthcare, concerns about the rights of immigrants and other marginalized groups, as well as efforts to ensure public safety and promote social well-being are social priorities that deserve unusually extensive coverage. Public Scholarship is a means by which teachers and scholars can promote the public good, and we encourage faculty, staff, and students to find engaging and innovative ways to communicate with a broader public. We, in the Center for Leadership and Engagement, are pleased to support these efforts and to provide outlets on our website for sharing a variety of perspectives.

June 9, 2006

We need to develop flexible but clear guidelines for recognizing and rewarding public scholarship and artistic production.

While there is variation in current terminology (public scholarship, scholarship of engagement, community-engaged scholarship), engaged scholarship is defined by the collaboration between academics and individuals outside the academy - knowledge professionals and the lay public (local, regional/state, national, global) - for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.                                                                                                                                            (NERCHE, n.d.)

The Journal of Public Scholarship in Higher Education aims to advance the status and prospects for publicly engaged teaching and research in the academy by showcasing the new disciplinary and/or pedagogical knowledge generated by engagement with the community.

The Center for Public Scholarship seeks to promote free inquiry and public discussion, bringing the best scholarship in and outside the academy to bear on the critical and contested issues of our times.

Its ethics and values hold central:

Relationship-building, reciprocity, and mutual benefit Participation, transparency, and reflection Innovation, integration, and dialogue Cultural diversity and social equality In coming to these forms of “applied” scholarship, humanities scholars have emphasized the way that culture in its many forms mediates interactions, development, and knowledge.

Publicly-engaged scholarship yields diverse artifacts, informing knowledge in multiple domains Policy and planning recommendations Museum exhibitions and public performances New curricula for courses or workshops Books and journal articles As consequence, public scholarship also yields new connections among disciplines, communities, and sectors.