Public Scholarship in the Department of Communication

(Jump down to graduate student writings on public scholarship...)

The Department of Communication brought together two units at the University of Washington: the School of Communications and the Department of Speech Communication. This 2002 merger gave the faculty the opportunity to reflect on the core principles underlying their philosophy of graduate education. One of these principles is public scholarship. The Department faculty and students take their research beyond the confines of the academy to engage in constructive dialogue not only with academics but also with other citizens, diverse communities, and political and cultural leaders. Such dialogue increases the potential transformative power of communication scholarship, while also fulfilling a central mission of a public research university.

Many other academic institutions have renewed their emphasis on the public mission of the university. One at the University of Washington is the Simpson Center’s Connecting with the Community institutes for doctoral students. Additional sites of interest include the following:

Faculty Statement on Public Scholarship

In 2004, the faculty approved a formal statement on public scholarship. This statement is designed to clarify the meaning of this principle for faculty and students who wish to carry out public scholarship projects. The statement reads, in part,

“Scholarship and citizenship go hand in hand. Although scholars in higher education ultimately work on behalf of their communities, their nations and the world, much of their scholarship stays within the traditional research process, subject to peer review and publication in discipline-based journals and books, although available for review and application by persons and institutions outside of the academy. Scholars also directly engage the world beyond the academy, drawing on scholarship developed in the rigor of disciplinary tradition. Productive efforts of this kind, herein called public scholarship, may take many forms, such as popularization of research-based ideas in a variety of media and formats, facilitation of deliberation about such social values as equality, justice and freedom, and explanation or appreciation of texts, concepts, values or events. Such efforts can promote constructive dialogue with and among students, citizens, diverse communities, and political and cultural leaders.”

Additional language in the faculty statement can be used for purposes of evaluation for tenure or promotion, and the full statement is available on request from the Department. (If interested, please contact Patrick Olsen ).

Graduate Course in Public Scholarship

To ensure that all students have the opportunity to reflect on their own work in relation to larger public purposes, one of the three core courses in the department focuses on public scholarship. COM 502 (Communication Scholarship and Public Life) examines what it means to be a public scholar, looks at relevant examples of public scholarship from the recent and distant past, and encourages students to make connections between their own research interests and communities outside academia. The course was first taught in Spring 2003, and the syllabi from each year are available for review: 2006 Syllabus | 2004 Syllabus | 2003 Syllabus

Student Writings on Public Scholarship

In 2006, a team of graduate students in the department sought to further clarify the meaning, history, and types of public scholarship that exist. Carlys Allen, Tamara Barnett, Ben Crosby, Elizabeth Scherman, and Lea Werbel worked collaboratively with course instructor John Gastil on a document that you can read here.

In the 2004 Communication Scholarship and Public Life seminar, the students wrote biographical and historical papers on public scholars and instances of public scholarship projects. Some of these papers have been made available on this site, and they can help the reader get a sense for the variety of ways scholars can connect their work with larger publics. The students share these papers, most of which are no more polished than a typical seminar paper, in the spirit of public engagement—putting their own views into the larger conversation on public scholarship.

Meredith Bagley, “A Game Plan: Tips from Pat Griffin on Public Scholarship."

Deborah Bassett, “Mary Parker Follett: A Public Scholar “Far Ahead of Her Time.”

Alice Marwick, “crossing boundaries, reaching out: the public scholarship of bell hooks.”

Adrienne Massanari, “Public scholarship amidst tragedy: Lessons from the Rwandan genocide.”

Leah Sprain, "Sending Signals from the Ivory Tower: Barriers to Connecting Academic Research to the Public"