American Universities are currently facing unprecedented attacks on higher education, including drastic cuts to funding; increased attempts to control who is hired and what gets studied; and even who can attend. These attacks are enabled (in part) by long-standing and deeply held distrust in higher education institutions as ivory towers that serve only the wealthy and elite. Community engaged research provides hope for the future of the scholarship supported by academic institutions by avoiding extractive, top-down research. Scholarship that involves communities in the formulation and development of research projects, data collection efforts, and by ensuring they see the benefits of research may help build public trust.

While prioritizing engaged research may help build trust, engaging in participatory research is not without risks for both scholars and the communities with whom they engage. Engaged scholarship may increase the visibility of scholars. Threats resulting from that visibility risk disproportionately affecting students, junior scholars, and scholars from underrepresented or historically marginalized groups. Targeted cuts to funding means some groups may not benefit and decreased federal funding and may make it challenging to appropriately compensate community partners. Engaged scholarship also increases the visibility of the communities involved. For example, research might heighten surveillance on communities facing deportations, attempting to access healthcare, or it might overburden communities with additional labour.

If engaged research is going to build public trust, it also needs to be trustworthy by responding to these emerging risks.

This project will interview scholars who conduct community engaged research (broadly defined) to:

  • identify risks faced by scholars and communities that participate in community engaged scholarship
  • identify best practices used by scholars for protecting and uplifting communities
  • provide recommendations to ensure safe and successful community engaged scholarship

This project is led by Sarah Gilbert and supported through Cornell’s Einhorn Center Engaged Faculty Fellowship Program.