Community Engagement Definitions and Resources for Scholars

UNCG is distinguished as a community-engaged university with high research activity, as recognized by the Carnegie Foundation. Community-engaged scholarship is enacted across faculty activities, including teaching, research/creative activities, and service. Resources provided here are useful to those who are new to community engagement, or who are documenting and/or reviewing community-engaged scholarship for the purpose of promotion, tenure, or reappointment. We are frequently updating our resource library — please contact us if you would like to contribute!

New Resource: UNCG Community Partner Research Ethics Training (CPRET)

Resources for Faculty – Documenting and/or Evaluating CE

• Schedule a consultation with Dr. Emily Janke, Director of the Institute for Community & Economic Engagement (emjanke@uncg.edu).
• List of helpful UNCG Terms and Definitions related to community engagement.
• Documenting and Evaluating Community-Engaged Scholarship at UNCG (workshop slides)
• Honoring the Mosaic of Talents and Stewarding the Standards of High Quality Community-Engaged Scholarship
  • A practical and educational guide to documenting and evaluating non-traditional forms of scholarship, including community-engaged scholarship. Created by UNCG’s Institute for Community & Economic Engagement.
• Overview of Community Engagement and the Effect of COVID-19 as it Relates to Writing a COVID Context Statement (PDF)
• Writing Your COVID Context Statement: A Worksheet for Examining and Articulating the Effects of COVID-19 on Faculty Academic Work Roles (PDF)
• Overview of change process at UNCG to include community engagement into P&T policies (peer-reviewed journal article)
  • Janke, E. M., Medlin, K.B., & Holland, B. A. (2016). Intense, pervasive and shared faculty dialogue: Generating understanding and identifying “hotspots” in five days. Metropolitan Journal, (27)2, 19-35. DOI: 10.18060/2112
• Faculty Engaged Scholarship: Setting Standards and Building Conceptual Clarity (White Paper)
  • This report identifies several ways in which academic disciplines frame engaged scholarship. The framework presented in Appendix A may help faculty build greater conceptual clarity regarding the different approaches and pathways taken in their engaged scholarship. 
• Calleson D, Kauper-Brown J, Seifer SD. Community-Engaged Scholarship Toolkit. Seattle: Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, 2005.
  • The goal of this toolkit is to provide health professional faculty with a set of tools to carefully plan and document their community-engaged scholarship and produce strong portfolios for promotion and tenure. 
• Peer Review Criteria for Assessing Community Engagement in Research Proposals (see also Community Engagement Framework for Development of Education/Training for Researchers).
  • This table provides a list of criteria suggested for reviewers to be able to review community engagement research proposals effectively. Also included are suggested criteria for reviewers to use in assessing research applications involving community engagement.
• Documenting your Community-Engaged Scholars for Internal and External Review
  • Effectively communicating and documenting your community-engaged scholarship for promotion, tenure, and/or annual review is important. This webinar shares strategies to shape your narrative and materials to capture the full dimensions of success – your impact, but also reciprocal processes and relationships.
  • Session offered by Emily Janke, Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Director of the Institute for Community & Economic Engagement on April 2023.
• Integrating Teaching and Research/Creative Activity Through Community-Engaged Scholarship
  • Laura Gonzalez and Patti Clayton will join Emily Janke on a panel to share experiences and best practices for integrating teaching, research, and service through community engagement. Get ideas for how this might help you as you prepare courses for the coming semesters!
• Webinar on measuring humanities, arts, and design scholarship for promotion and tenure.
  • Produced by the HuMetricsHSS initiative based at Michigan State on the topic of measuring humanities, arts, and design scholarship for promotion and tenure.

Partnerships & Engaged Scholarship

• Assessment & Evaluation
• Community-Engaged Scholarship During COVID-19
• Community Engagement Awards
• Community Engagement Conferences
• Community Engagement Journals
• Community Engagement Organizations & Associations
• ICEE staff members’ scholarship
• Integrating Community Engagement
• Partnership Development
• Scholarship of Engagement

Disciplinary Resources for Promotion and Tenure

• P&T in the Arts, Humanities, and Design
• P&T in Business & Economics
• P&T in the Health & Wellness Professions
• P&T in Sociology & Anthropology