The Engaged Scholar E-Newsletter

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April 2024

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Message from the Vice Provost

Kwesi Brookins, Vice Provost for University Outreach and Engagement

Planting the Seeds of Scholarship

The sights and sounds of commencement weekend make me proud to be a Spartan, a feeling I hope that you share as our graduates prepare to contribute their knowledge and skills to the broader community. Among them are impressive numbers of graduate and undergraduate engaged scholars and volunteers supported by UOE programs, faculty, and staff. We congratulate them all for advancing MSU’s civic and land-grant missions.

Come Monday, our bustling campus will move into summer mode as many undergraduate and graduate students take a well-deserved break and our faculty regroups to prepare for the fall semester ahead.

While it will be relatively quiet outside the offices of University Outreach and Engagement (UOE) at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center, for our team the spring and summer will be a time to plant the seeds of scholarship ... read more

Featured MSU Engaged Scholars

Kent Key is a health equity and community-engaged researcher on the faculty of the C.S. Mott Department of Public Health in the MSU College of Human Medicine.

Flint Community Guides Creation of Health History Toolkit

Kent Key, Ph.D., MPH
Assistant Professor
Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health
College of Human Medicine

In 2014, Flint, Michigan, made national headlines when it was uncovered that residents’ drinking water had been contaminated with lead after the city’s main water source was switched to the Flint River in an effort to save money.

The water crisis came as no surprise to Flint residents, who observed a change in the color, smell, and taste of their water years earlier. Thousands of people had been exposed to damaging, and in some cases deadly, levels of lead.

Initially, Flint residents’ pleas for recognition of unsafe drinking water were met with a mere “water boil advisory,” perpetuating mistrust within the predominantly Black community. Ten years later, Flint residents are still grappling with the physical, mental, and emotional consequences of the crisis ... read more

Associate Professor Justin Simard is joined by Cass Technical High School teacher Taylor Sastre and law student Hannah Gates at the MSU College of Law. Sastre and her students met the dean and other faculty members during a campus visit in April.

The Citing Slavery Project:
Documenting the Continuing Influence of Slavery on U.S. Law

Justin Simard, J.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
College of Law

As they deciphered the antiquated language of 19^th-century legal cases involving slavery, students at Cass Technical High School in Detroit discovered a troubling narrative. Lawyers and judges often treated enslaved people as property, considering those who were ill or injured “damaged goods.”

Worse, they learned, courts continue to cite these cases as “good law” well into the 21^st century. “It’s disheartening when I think about the fact that our country has come so far and African Americans have fought for our civil rights,” said Jessica McCloud, 18. “It’s so hard to see slaves treated as objects. More people should know about it.”

McCloud and her Advanced Placement Government classmates are helping raise awareness of these cases—and the human stories of the enslaved people at the center of them—by participating in MSU’s Citing Slavery Project ... read more

Michigan State University Community Engagement Scholarship Awards displayed on a table prior to the ceremony

Award Ceremonies Honor Exemplary Community Engagement

For more than 165 years, Michigan State University has been home to students, faculty, and staff who have dedicated their time, studies, and careers to addressing societal challenges at the local level and around the world.

At the All-University Awards Convocation on May 1, MSU will honor these scholars. Of the 10 awards being presented, the Community Engagement Scholarship Award (CESA) shines a light on the highly engaged community-based scholarship collaborations that positively impact both community and scholarship.

This year the CESA will be bestowed upon Courtney Carignan, an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the College of Veterinary Medicine, and her partner, Great Lakes PFAS Network. Carignan engaged with communities affected by PFAS contamination to share information, connections, and resources, supporting the empowerment and autonomy of community partners ... read more

Announcements and Events

Academic Partnerships K-16+ That Help Develop and Sustain University-Assisted Community Schools (Virtual)
Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities
May 1, 2024

Community-Engaged Scholarship Write-Ins
MSU Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship
May 3, 2024 (Virtual and East Lansing, Michigan)
June 14, 2024 (Virtual)
July 12, 2024 (Virtual)
August 2, 2024 (Virtual)

Call for Applications: Engaged Scholarship Research/Creative Activities Grants Program for Faculty
Engagement Scholarship Consortium
Application Deadline: May 3, 2024

Evaluating the Scholarship of Engagement (Virtual – For ESC Member Institutions Only)
Engagement Scholarship Consortium
May 8, 2024

Transcending Institutional Boundaries (Virtual)
Campus Compact
May 8, 2024

BILINGUAL: Portaging Through Research with an Indigenous Youth Advisory Committee (Virtual)
Community-Based Research Canada
May 9, 2024

Arts-Based Research Design for Centering Communities (Webinar)
Community-Based Research Canada
May 10, 2024

Contemporary Approaches to Community-Engaged Research (Virtual Series)
IARSLCE (International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement)
May 15, 2024: Trends Gaps, and Challenges in Doctoral Research on Community Engagement

Urban Research-Based Action Network Summer Intensive
Salt Lake City, Utah
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
July 29 – August 2, 2024
Application Deadline: May 15, 2024

Anti-Racist Community Engagement Principle 4 Workshop: Compassionate and Reflective Classrooms On and Off Campus (Virtual)
Campus Compact
May 16, 2024

What to Do When You Feel Powerless: Supporting Participants Throughout Complex Situations (Webinar)
Michigan Pre-College and Youth Outreach Conference
May 22, 2024

Science Olympiad National Tournament
MSU University Outreach and Engagement
East Lansing, Michigan
May 24-25, 2024

2024 Pen to Paper Writing Retreat (Pre-Conference Session)
International Symposium in Service-Learning
Indianapolis, Indiana
May 28-29, 2024

Call for Applications: Joy of Giving Something (JGS) Fellowship
Imagining America
Application Deadline: June 5, 2023

The YACC Recover Study: A Community-Led Study on Quality of Life in Young Adults Diagnosed with Cancer (Webinar)
Community-Based Research Canada
June 13, 2024

Knowledge Mobilization Training for Peer Researchers (Webinar)
Community-Based Research Canada
June 14, 2024

Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference
Portland, Oregon
Engagement Scholarship Consortium
October 9-10, 2024 (Pre-Conference October 7-8)

Outreach and Engagement Resources

MSU Graduate Certification in Community Engagement
This program prepares graduate students for academic careers that integrate scholarship with community engagement. It offers students a transcript notation indicating that they have completed the program.

Community Engagement Toolkits
Designed by the Center for Community Engaged Learning to guide and support MSU faculty, students, staff, and community partners.

Transformations in Higher Education: The Scholarship of Engagement Series
Available from Michigan State University Press

Looking for Community Partners?

Collaboration and partnership with communities are at the core of engaged scholarship. In all of its work, University Outreach and Engagement emphasizes university-community partnerships that are collaborative, participatory, empowering, systemic, transformative, and anchored in scholarship. If you are a faculty or academic staff member wanting to establish a community partnership, University Outreach and Engagement may be able to help you. Our staff and researchers have connections across the state in areas such as education, mental health, human services, business, and government. For more information, contact Burton Bargerstock, Executive Director of the Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship, at (517) 353-8977 or bb@msu.edu.

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We would like to hear from you. Contact us with comments, suggestions, announcements, or “engaged scholar” project information for future e-newsletters. Send to: cit@msu.edu.

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