UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State faculty and students from all campuses are invited to submit proposals and poster ideas for a conference that highlights the importance and benefits of student and community engagement.
Submissions will be selected for the 21st annual Engagement Scholarship Consortium International Conference, to be held from Sept. 15-16 in Philadelphia. Penn State will serve as the conference’s host, along with regional partners the University of Delaware, Dickinson College, James Madison University, Swarthmore College and Virginia Tech.
The deadline to submit proposals and posters is Friday, March 13.
Nicholas Rowland, sociology professor at Penn State Altoona and programming committee chair for the conference, said this year’s conference theme, “Envisioning Engaged Scholarship,” looks toward the future of engaged scholarship on college campuses.
“This year, special although not exclusive, emphasis will be placed on proposals that look to the future of engagement,” he said. “The future of engaged scholarship, community engagement and even the future of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium itself.”
For the first time at an Engagement Scholarship Consortium conference, students can submit poster ideas highlighting their past or upcoming engaged scholarship experiences. Successful posters should showcase community engagement efforts accomplished through research or service works, and undergraduate students who participate in the conference will receive a special discounted registration fee.
Rowland said it was important to include student representation since they are the future of engagement.
“We really want to learn what direction students think engagement should go,” he said. “Times are changing and so is engagement, which means we all need to be attentive and responsive to students' changing needs. I hope we listen closely to students' engagement experiences so that we all can, in time, improve the status of community and scholarly engagement broadly across every institution of higher education.”
Faculty can submit proposals for panels, presentations, posters and workshops. Successful proposals will advance discourse about engaged scholarship and evidence-based practice by communicating research findings, program designs and impacts, lessons learned and curricular and policy development reflective of diverse contexts, partnerships, populations and institutions.
The Engagement Scholarship Consortium is a nonprofit educational organization composed of higher education member institutions. The consortium’s goal is to work collaboratively to build strong university-community partnerships anchored in the rigor of scholarship and designed to help build community capacity.
Visit the Engagement Scholarship Consortium conference website for more information and submission requirements.