cPARN members present findings of graduate student report

Yesterday in Mann Library, cPARN members presented the findings of their report Engaging Research/Engaging Cornell: Graduate Students, Public Engagement, and the Land Grant Mission of Cornell University.

Two dozen graduate students, faculty, staff, and administrators were present at the unveiling which generated some critical discussion about the future of graduate student engaged research at Cornell. cPARN member Todd Dickey gave attendees a taste of the report by focusing on the research team's process, as well as the historical precedent of engaged research at Cornell--particularly that research associated with Cornell Cooperative Extension and ILR Extension. He further spoke about the current rise of engagement discourse at Cornell and beyond. cPARN members Justine Lindemann and John Armstrong rounded out the discussion by cataloguing the report's recommendations regarding graduate student funding, formalized graduate student networks, and broader support structures for Extension as well as engaged faculty (tenure & promotion, hiring, and coursework).

The discussion following the event pointed to a lack of broad community participation in the direction of public engagement at Cornell alongside the complex nature of institutional change. Now the report authors will focus on sharing the report with key administrators who can advocate for the recommendations outlined in the presentation and the full report.

Below is a full-length recording of the presentation and discussion.

The full-length report can be accessed below.


We're so very thankful for all the support we've received in writing and publishing this report. The people involved are too numerous to mention here. However, we'd like to specifically point out the support of Cornell's Graduate School who funded the video production you see above.

Engaging Research/Engaging Cornell--Report Released!

Hello everyone,

Soon we will upload a video of our presentation, Put for now, please feel free download a copy of our graduate student report on engaged research. Feel free to share it far and wide.

This work has been two years in the making and we're happy to make it available to you here today.

cPARN members releasing report on graduate student engaged research

Engaging Research/Engaging Cornell: 

Graduate Students, Public Engagement, 

and the Land Grant Mission of Cornell University

January 27, 2015

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Mann 102

Please join us for the release of a new research report on graduate student efforts to undertake publicly engaged research at Cornell. This report, over two years in the making, is brought to you by four graduate student members of the Cornell Participatory Action Research Network (cPARN).

Over the past few years, Cornell has joined a long list of higher education institutions across the United States and the world in taking up the call of publicly engaged scholarship. Following on Engaged Learning + Research’s 2012 “Graduate Student Engagement Survey,” the report explores the experience of students who are active in or exploring their interest in “engaged scholarship.” Additionally, the report investigates claims made by the University regarding its strategic goal of “Excellence in Public Engagement.” The bulk of the presentation will focus on graduate student recommendations regarding funds, formal networks, and university support of graduate student publicly engaged research.

As the Engaged Cornell initiative unfolds, please join us for this important conversation regarding public engagement and graduate education and research at Cornell.

Light lunch will be provided. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to elr-cornell@cornell.edu.

The research team attending the International Doctoral Student
Seminar on Action Research in Bristol, UK. Report authors are
Todd Dickey, third from left; Melissa Rosario, seventh from
left, Justine Lindemann, eighth from left; and John Armstrong far right.

About the speakers:

John Armstrong, a Ph.D. candidate in Adult and Extension Education works with the Whole Community Project led by Jemila Sequeira, part of the national Food Dignity Grant. His dissertation considers engagement through a narrative lens using methods of institutional ethnography, discourse analysis, narrative interviewing, and first-person voice. You can follow, and contribute to, his dissertation-in-progress at http://www.pokesalad.info/engagingstories/.

Todd Dickey is a Ph.D. candidate in Industrial and Labor Relations. His research focuses on public sector labor and employment relations and workplace conflict management. His dissertation examines the influence of an integrated conflict management system on dispute resolution outcomes, employee engagement, and organizational change at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Justine Lindemann is a Ph.D. student in Development Sociology, focusing domestically on the political ecology of race and cities, using food as a lens to better understand social relations and urban metabolisms in the postindustrial rustbelt. Through an exploration of various iterations of the urban food movement, she hopes to contribute to a better understanding of how everyday practices might contribute to radical democratic change in urban space and beyond.

--

Melissa Rosario, Ph.D., Anthropology, 2013, co-authored this report, but is not able to attend. A cultural anthropologist interested in the politics of autonomy for Caribbean peoples and marginalized U.S. groups, she currently holds a postdoctoral fellowship position at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

Co-Sponsored by:

cPARN

Engaged Learning + Research