Faculty Newsletter: Spring 2024

Note from CCCE Director Sinda Nichols

“Civic learning, especially the type the CCCE is tasked with supporting, is focused on learning how to use democratic modes of collaboration and public problem-solving. When students have positive experiences with those aspects of democracy, and when we explicitly name them as such, we’re building investment in the future of American democracy as a project driven by positive values.” Access the full article.

Register Now for the 2nd annual Day of Public Scholarship June 6, 2024

The CCCE and the Broom Fellow for Public Scholarship, Professor Palmar Alvarez-Blanco, are excited to invite Carleton faculty and staff with an interest in public scholarship to the Day of Public Scholarship on Thursday, June 6, from 9am-1pm at the Weitz Center. This year’s guest speaker is Elaine Ward, associate professor of higher education at Merrimack College. Day of Public Scholarship Registration

Empty Bowls May 10, 2024

Carleton Ceramics, in partnership with CCCE and Art and Art History, is excited to be hosting our annual Empty Bowls event this year…our 20th event at Carleton!  The Empty Bowls Project raises awareness and funds to fight hunger at a local, national, and international level.  With soup made by the Carleton and Northfield community, served in beautiful handmade bowls created by ceramics students and faculty, we have raised over $127,600 for the Community Action Center of Northfield (CAC) food shelf since our first event in 2004-05.  Our event will be held on Friday, May 10, 2024, after a related convocation presented by Jill Conklin of Food for Soul. Everyone is welcome!

ACE Faculty Interview with Palmar Alvarez-Blanco

The CCCE recently interviewed Broom Fellow and Professor of Spanish Palmar Alvarez-Blanco about her applied Academic Civic Engagement course, Spain Today, which partners with community partners and elders in Spain who experienced the Spanish dictatorship. Alvarez-Blanco developed this course over several years with her partners. Here she reflects on the course learning goals, logistical challenges, and how her teaching philosophy informed her process of scaffolding the learning experience for both Carleton students and the elder participants in Spain. Palmar Alvarez-Blanco Interview

Funding Your ACE Course

Request funding through the CCCE to support your ACE course (honorariums, events, or transportation) or for an ACE TA or Public Scholarship Assistant. Rolling deadline (priority deadline for fall term TAs/Public Scholarship Assistants: August 15, 2024). We have started offering informal TA training for ACE TAs.

Both the Project Pericles Faculty Leadership Program & the CCCE ACE Community Co-creation grants provide funds and professional development support to faculty to co-create or redesign an ACE course with a community partner. Contact eseru@carleton.edu to consult with Emily Seru on 2024-2026 ACE course ideas that could involve co-creation with a community partner.

Puzak Endowed Fund for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement. Rolling deadline.

Incubator Grants to foster pedagogical and curricular exploration and innovation. Rolling deadline. 

Recommended Reading

McHugh, N. A., Kennedy, S., & Wright, A. (2024). “Extractive Knowledge: Epistemic and Practical Challenges for Higher Education Community Engagement.” metropolitan universities

Corbin, G. A., Santana, C. J., Cortezia, W. G. & Reiff, J. D., (2023) 

“Civic Learning Through a Lens of Racial Equity”, Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 29(2)

The latest issue of Metropolitan Universities journal (MUJ), Vol. 35 No. 1 (2024): Productive Tensions and Uncomfortable Conversations is now available online.

Nominate a Carleton student for the Imagining America JGS fellowship application – due June 5

International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) is a peer-reviewed online journal focused on service-learning, campus-community engagement, and the promotion of active and effective citizenship through education. The Editors are seeking submissions that reflect the breadth of scholarship in the service-learning and community engagement field. The Journal has five main sections: (1) Advances in Theory and Methodology; (2) Community Partnerships and Impacts; (3) Faculty Roles and Institutional Issues; (4) International Service-Learning and Community Engagement Research; and (5) Student Outcomes. Submissions to be considered in the 2024 volume due May 15, 2024

Also, the IARSLCE October 2024 conference is now open for conference proposals. Due May 15

Share your work on the radio with “The Academic Minute” AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella is host of the radio segment The Academic Minute, produced by WAMC Northeast Public Radio in partnership with AAC&U. The Academic Minute features professors and researchers from colleges and universities around the world discussing what’s new in the academy and the ways in which academic research contributes to serving the public good. Learn how about how to submit a pitch.

The Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning has an open call for “lively and original articles on research, theory, pedagogy, and other issues pertinent to (a) civic engagement, (b) campus-community partnerships, (c) curriculum-based and co-curricular service-learning, and (d) engaged/public scholarship in higher education”. Rolling deadline

Carleton is a member of the Place-Based Justice Network. Their summer institute registration is now open.