CCBP Marks Fifth Anniversary of Awards Program, April 22

• March 6th, 2011
• in Events, News

Click here to download nomination forms.

TUSCALOOSA "” The Center for Community-Based Partnerships (CCBP) will present awards for the best faculty-, student- and community-initiated projects during ceremonies Friday, April 22, at the Hotel Capstone on the campus of The University of Alabama.

The keynote speaker for the event will be the president of Morgan State University, Dr. David Wilson, a native of Marengo County and former vice president for University Outreach at Auburn University.

The program begins at 10 a.m. with poster presentations showing the variety and effectiveness of community-partnered projects during previous years as well as some that will be up for awards this year. The luncheon and awards presentation will follow.

"This will be our fifth annual awards program," said Dr. Samory T. Pruitt, vice president for Community Affairs, who oversees outreach work at CCBP, which includes the areas of educational development, community development, and community research and communication.

"We are pleased to welcome Dr. Wilson back to Alabama. He was a leader in community engagement at Auburn University and at the University of Wisconsin-Extension before becoming the 10th full-term president at Morgan State," Pruitt said.

A widely published scholar, Dr. Wilson holds the doctorate in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University. One of 10 siblings living on a sharecropper farm outside the small town of McKinley in Marengo County, Wilson became the first person in his family to attend college.

Janet Griffith, assistant provost for communications, chairs the awards committee and program. "Nomination forms are available at www.ccbp.ua.edu or by visiting the CCBP or Community Affairs offices on campus," she said.

Nominations should be delivered to Griffith's office, 254 Rose Administration, by 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 6.

To propose a poster, e-mail Tommy Syx, a member of the awards committee, at tsyx@cba.ua.edu describing your poster. Posters may be original or presented earlier at completive events. The deadline for proposing a poster is Friday, April 1, with notification by Wednesday, April 6.

There is no charge for the program or luncheon, but registration is required. To register, send an e-mail to community.affairs@ua.edu, indicating your desire to attend. As attendance is limited to 200, early registration is recommended. If space is available, your registration will be confirmed by return e-mail.

The Center for Community-Based Partnerships is an initiative of the Office of Community Affairs. Its purpose is to provide leadership for campus and community projects that bring lasting benefits to both. Among the examples are the Parent Leadership Academy, a partnership between city and county schools and three divisions of the University; Black Belt 100 Lenses, a community identity, development and leadership partnership between CCBP and the Black Belt Community Foundation; and the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, a scholarly journal that publishes leading community engagement research. For more information, see www.ccbp.ua.edu.

Digital Humanities Symposium on Saturday, March 5th

• March 4th, 2011
• in Events

A Symposium on the Digital Humanities will be held on Saturday, March 5th, in 301 Morgan Hall, on the University of Alabama campus.  Sponsored by the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies, the University Libraries and the Center for the Book, e-Tech, and the College of Arts and Sciences, this Symposium brings together five scholars from the USA, the UK, and Canada to discuss the practical and theoretical implications of computer technology for research in the humanities.  Following the lectures will be a round table discussion by the lecturers and the Symposium’s auditors.  For more information about our speakers, click on the links below.

The program is as follows:

 9 am: Christie Carson, Royal Holloway, University of London, “Early Modern Theatre (EMLoT) Online: Exploring Multiple Histories.”

10 am: Jennifer Boyle, Coastal Carolina University, “Hacking the New Humanities: The virtual sovereign in Thomas Hobbes and militant video games.”

11 am: Richard Cunningham, Acadia University, “INKE at 1:  The First Year (and a half) of a Major Digital Humanities Initiative.” [INKE = Implementing New Knowledge Environments]

LUNCH BREAK

 2 pm: Patricia Fumerton, University of California, Santa Barbara, “Vexed Impressions: Toward a Digital Archive of Broadside Ballad Illustrations.”

 3 pm: Kevin Kee, Brock University, “Fiddling while Rome burns: Why Digital Humanists should be more like Nero.”

 4 pm: Round table discussion.

We will provide coffee, cookies, pastries, and such at 8:30 am, so that we may begin the Symposium promptly at 9 am.  Parking is available on campus; visitors can park without fear of ticketing in any open lot, so long as they park legally.  Probably the closest is the lot behind Ten Hoor, unless you arrive early and can snag a spot behind Rowand-Johnson.

We hope to see you on Saturday the 5th!  Don’t let a little rain stop you!

Best,
Sharon

Sharon O’Dair
Hudson Strode Professor of English
Director
Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies
Department of English
University of Alabama
Tusaloosa, AL 35487-0244

Black Belt 100 Lenses Summer Camp 2011: Changing Perspective

• March 3rd, 2011
• in Events

Capstone Entrepreneurship Camp 2011

• March 3rd, 2011
• in Events

Plans Moving Forward for UA to Host the National Outreach Scholarship Conference

• March 3rd, 2011
• in Conferences, Events, NOSC

UPDATE: Plans Moving Forward for UA to Host the National Outreach Scholarship Conference

Left: Dr. Samory Pruitt holds a replica of the Olympic Torch as a reminder that The University of Alabama will be the host of the National Outreach Scholarship Conference in 2012. Dean Carolyn Dahl, a member of the NOSC 2012 planning committee, presented the torch to Dr. Pruitt at the 2010 CCBP Awards Program.

In 2007, The University of Alabama became the first non-land-grant institution voted into the National Outreach Scholarship Conference. And in 2012 we are scheduled to host this largest conference in the engaged scholarship field. In just four years we have developed our engagement agenda so that today we are recognized as one of the leading engaged institutions in the nation. We have obtained that recognition by remaining true to our motto, “Engaging Communities and Changing Lives.”

The NOSC 2012 planning committee has selected “Partner. Inspire. Change.” as its theme. The committee chose this theme after considering many proposals from on and off campus. We believe it will provide an exciting framework for universities and their community partners from all over the country to demonstrate how colleges can work with communities to improve both. The dates of the conference are September 30 through October 3.

In the process of becoming a national leader in engaged scholarship, we have brought together community partners and university faculty, staff, and students in hundreds of ongoing projects. We have also launched what many consider the leading research journal in the field, the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, a feature magazine, PARTNERS, that tells the local engaged scholarship story, and several websites that help to keep all parties informed about our progress.

Areas in which we have applied the engaged scholarship concept include education, engineering, medicine, nursing, health/nutrition, communication, journalism, local produce, veterans services, business, youth leadership, community festivals, entrepreneurship, ethics, social work, literacy, creative writing, and others.

The old model of teaching, research, and service as separate entities has given way to one in which community leaders and rank and file citizens, plus faculty, staff, and students "” undergraduate as well as graduate "” come together in a process in which all groups collaborate, contribute, achieve, and learn from each other.

CCBP’s purpose is multifold:

• to enrich and improve teaching, research/creative activity, and service through engaged scholarship
• to create an engaged university that is local, national, and international in its outreach
• to prepare educated, engaged citizens
• to strengthen community economies, democratic values, and civic responsibilities
• to apply these ideas and practices in diverse settings

In 2008, the University applied for and was approved for the Carnegie Foundation’s classification in Curricular Engagement and Outreach & Partnerships, the most comprehensive of several Carnegie elective classifications. That successful application guarantees recognition of our University as a leader in this new area of comprehensive scholarship that combines teaching, research, and service.

But all the news about engaged scholarship is not good; we still have much work to do. A 2007 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education said despite strong interest among colleges and universities in the new classification, few institutions have aligned promotion, tenure, and hiring polices that reward scholars’ work in community-engaged scholarship.

A copy of our final report can be found at ccbp.ua.edu. See our full Carnegie Engagement Application at http://ccbp.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Final_proposal.pdf.

In connection with NOSC 2012, Dr. Cassandra Simon, editor of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship (JCES), has called for a special edition of JCES based on the conference theme “Partner. Inspire. Change.” For more about this special edition, see JCES Call for Manuscripts.

We are advised and led in this work by an active Council composed of faculty, staff, students, and community partners from many disciplines, occupations, and backgrounds (see http://ccbp.ua.edu/about/council/). As you click through our website, we hope you will see an area of interest to you. Get in touch with us to consider joining the thriving engaged scholarship movement here at UA If you see an area that is missing, let us know.
Just e-mail any one of the directors "” Dr. Heather Pleasants (hpleasan@bamaed.ua.edu), Dr. Ed Mullins (emullins@bama.ua.edu) or Mr. Christopher Spencer (christopher.spencer@ua.edu), or call us at 205-348-7392.

Members of the NOSC 2012 planning committee are Gary Creek, Dean Carolyn Dahl, Janet Griffith, Dr. Ed Mullins, Dr. Samory Pruitt, Leonard Smith, Cresandra Smothers, Sea Talantis, and Joanne Terrell.

Dr. Samory Pruitt
Vice President of Community Affairs
President of the CCBP Council
The University of Alabama

Celebrating a Diverse Alabama Rally and Lobby Day

• March 1st, 2011
• in Events

Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (Twelfth Annual National Conference)

• March 1st, 2011
• in Conferences

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life
Twelfth Annual National Conference
What Sustains Us?
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
22-24 September 2011
 
Proposal Submission Deadline: Monday April 4th
 
Imagining America (IA) invites higher education affiliates (faculty, students, staff, and administrators) and community partners (individuals and organizations) to participate in our twelfth annual national conference, September 22-24, 2011, in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, co-hosted by Macalester College and the University of Minnesota.

To view suggested session formats, click here.
To submit a proposal, click here.
 
Conference Theme and Structure
Through the theme of this year’s conference, "What Sustains Us?" we will convene conversations, collaborations, and actions about a central issue of our time "“ sustainability. Participants will engage a broad range of questions about sustainability: environmental concerns (in both campus and community contexts), our existential and vocational condition, our social and institutional relations regarding humanities and arts practices, as well as concerns of globalization and the often-invisible labor that supports us. 

Conference sessions might engage such questions as:

• How can the increasing efforts to realize the democratic, public, and civic purposes of American higher education be sustained and forwarded?
• What sustains our engaged practices within a context of diminished resources and rapidly shifting cultures within higher education?
• How can engagement efforts contribute to sustained economic and cultural viability in urban and rural communities?
• In what ways can our work contribute to environmental sustainability and the responsible use of land, water, air, and other natural resources?
• What sustains stakeholders confronting challenges around power, race, class, and privilege?

Responders to the CFP may address this year's conference theme explicitly, or may propose sessions that more broadly explore topics of ongoing relevance to public scholarship and practice. These may include but are not limited to: foregrounding specific genealogies and histories of engaged art and scholarship; presenting and discussing unique concerns around engagement with respect to various kinds of institutions (i.e., research universities, 4-year colleges, community colleges, land grants, etc.) and/or communities (urban, rural, etc.); discussing and critiquing theoretical, practical, or ethical perspectives that inform engagement; or building on conversations and themes from past Imagining America conferences and regional meetings.
IA's national conferences facilitate encounters with the political, social, cultural, and physical contexts, particular to the host city, that inform local engagement initiatives. The 2011 conference will include on-campus sessions and a day of visits to metropolitan and rural off-campus sites where transformative collaborations are forged between Minnesota's diverse higher education institutions and communities. Interactive conference sessions are intended to facilitate group deliberation about publicly active art and scholarship, on levels of scale ranging from the course to campus-wide initiatives and beyond; from local organizing to national policy and international exchange.

Conference Submissions and Criteria
Conference formats reflect Imagining America's commitment to convening sessions that allow for groups to work through, rather than simply present, issues central to engaged art and scholarship. IA prioritizes sessions that foreground active dialogue and creative collaboration between session presenters and attendees alike.

We encourage all prospective conference presenters to familiarize themselves with Imagining America's one page Vision, Mission, Values, and Goals (VMVG) statement, and we ask that the dialogue that sessions initiate project the conversation toward the future, engaging questions of "What next?," "Where do we go from here?," or "How do we maintain the current momentum?"
Priority will be given to sessions that are cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional, include the direct participation of community partners, and/or explicitly engage a partnership between community and higher education. By request, Imagining America is happy to assist would-be proposers to identify individuals from other member campuses who share similar interests and who may want to collaborate. Contact Associate Director Kevin Bott at kbott@syr.edu. IA also invites prospective session proposers to participate in a conference call with Dr. Bott at 3pm EST on Wednesday, March 9. This call is intended to familiarize new proposers with Imagining America and will include a brief overview of IA, discussion of conference goals and proposal formats, and Q&A. To participate, contact Vicky Del Prato at vadelpra@syr.edu.