Consortium for Public Scholars

Posted by Pennsylvania State University on August 14, 2017

A colloquium to establish The Consortium for Public Scholars
October 12–13, 2017

The Penn State Center | 675 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA

This colloquium is being held to develop The Consortium for Public Scholars. This colloquium is open to university professionals, community professionals, community residents, and advanced high school, undergraduate, graduate, and professional students in the Philadelphia region.

Public scholarship refers to knowledge generation and transfer initiatives developed and conducted with and for the public. When engaged in such endeavors, both local and expert knowledge is appreciated and utilized to develop a more nuanced understanding of an issue for public benefit. This paradigm challenges higher education professionals to see their work for the university as embedded parts of external systems in which their skills, knowledge, and resources are insufficient without the skills, knowledge, and resources of local community members. It also requires community professionals and residents to examine their role in their communities, exploring how they can meld their expertise and experience to address public issues. Public scholarship products reflect a critical, discursive, dialogic perspective that tethers knowledge with action; encourages local results with an eye toward broader application; and requires sharing of both knowledge and process in ways that are publicly accessible in terms of language and distribution.

While initiatives exist that bind together individuals who are dedicated to outreach and/or engagement, there are relatively few opportunities for all types public scholars to collaborate and share knowledge across disciplines, interest areas, and categories of work. This colloquium aims to address this concern by developing a consortium of public scholars across institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, private businesses, and the community in the Philadelphia region. We use the term scholar broadly to include any individual interested in sharing their knowledge of their work in addressing public issues, not only those involved in academia. If this is you, we hope that you will participate. The organizing purpose of this colloquium is to share examples of best practices for public
scholarship, and co-develop a path forward for the consortium.

The detailed schedule for the colloquium will be updated shortly. The colloquium will take place at the Penn State Center Philadelphia, and will be October 12, 2017, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., and October 13, 2017, 8:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Registration Fee*:
Early bird: $25 until September 1, 2017
Regular: $35 until September 18, 2017
Late: $50 until October 1, 2017
Same day: $75

Information on registration and schedule may be found here: http://www.cvent.com/d/25qgdc

Registration is limited to 50 people, so please register before the event is full.

Please consider presenting a paper at the colloquium on your public scholarship. If you are a student (advanced high school, undergraduate, and graduate or professional student) you are encouraged to participate in the Student Poster Session as well. You can find the call for abstracts here. Abstracts for papers are due September 1, 2017. Abstracts for student posters are due September 1, 2017.

The Colloquium to Establish the Consortium for Public Scholars is sponsored by:

• The Justice Center for Research, Penn State University
• The Penn State Center Philadelphia
• Pennsylvania Campus Compact
• The Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, Penn State University
• Penn State Abington

*If you are unable to afford the registration fee, please contact us as we will have a limited amount of sponsored registrations.