November 20, 2020 | Issue 13 |
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“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and
celebrate those differences.” - Audre Lorde
With ballots cast and counted, it feels like we’re on the precipice of a new chapter of American history. In this respite, I can’t help but reflect on some of the parallels I see between the immense effort it took to ensure Americans could vote in this year’s presidential election, and the great work many of you are doing to make the world a better place. One question I have been reflecting on is this: How can we create a more inclusive, democratic and engaged culture at UC Davis? I believe it is within the realm of possibility that we, both individually and collectively, can do so and offer the following considerations.
To address shared problems, we must bring together diverse voices, seek out different perspectives, and listen to people not like ourselves. It was young voters and voters of color, independents, white college-educated voters, and so many others from urban, rural, and suburban areas that set voter turnout records. Similarly, it is imperative that we continue to bring together faculty, staff and students from across disciplinary backgrounds, colleges and schools, to build a robust community engagement network and expand our reach at UC Davis. Groups such as the Engaged Scholarship and Engaged Learning (ESEL) Collaborative as well as the Stakeholder Engagement Community of Practice (SECoP) are great starting points.
To understand the needs of a community and ensure they are part of the decisions that impact them, we must meet them where they are. It was the work of grassroots organizers in the Navajo Nation—partnering with Google to create plus codes that could serve as addresses for homes that don’t have them, creating hotlines in Indigenous languages to help voters locate their precincts—that turned out record numbers of Indigenous voters in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. At this moment, we are working to create clearer pathways for university-community engagement that will allow individuals and organizations to understand and access university resources. For example, we are partnering with university and non-university groups to create the Public Engagement Hub, an intentional and welcoming storefront presence in the heart of Sacramento, creating stronger connections between UC Davis and the many civic, institutional and community partners in the region.
To make progress we must have patience and perseverance, for institutional change is slow and the results aren’t always evident. Massive voter turnout was due in large part to organizations like Fair Fight, Georgia Stand-Up, the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, and many others who have been working for years to get people to the polls. Slowly but surely we are working to eliminate barriers and redundancies with the goal of increasing community engaged research and teaching. In early 2020, a Provost’s Work Group on Public Scholarship convened to identify some of these barriers and recommend changes to institutional policies and practices, which we are now working to implement.
By engaging in this work, we not only learn, we share knowledge and create common visions, and we re-imagine the public mission of the university. But we’ve still got a lot of work to do. As a nation, a society, and as an institution of higher education.
In community,
Michael Rios
Vice Provost, Public Scholarship and Engagement
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UC Davis instructor and Public Impact Research Initiative grantee Marcella Gonsalves and her partner Rosie Cerna, Community Engagement Manager for the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, reflect on undertaking a study on volunteer management amidst a global pandemic. Learn more about their project.
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As part of a community-based digital storytelling project, Professor Robert Irwin—deputy director of the Global Migration Center and Public Impact Research Initiative Grantee—has worked with graduate students and collaborators in Mexico to gather hundreds of testimonials highlighting issues relate to deportation. Learn more about their project.
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“My project will help broaden public understanding of the Black presence and contribution to the Central Valley and California. My students and I will represent the university as publicly engaged scholars, thereby helping fulfill UC’s commitment to serving the people of the state.” Milmon F. Harrison, PhD from UC Davis College of Letters and Science joined the Community Engaged Learning Faculty Fellows program to bring students into the research process as part of his teaching. Learn more about his experience.
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We were proud to co-sponsor Claudia Rankine's incredibly moving reading and discussion the day after this tear's presidential election. If you weren't able chance to attend, we recommend this event reflection from the Davis Humanities Institute—it includes a recording of the lecture available to UC Davis community members.
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This year, in place of an in-person gathering, Imagining America hosted a series of virtual conversations and events and collected creative responses that offered opportunities for community reflection, healing, and the creation of spaces and places for a radical reimagining of the world in which we live. Explore the responses and watch the closing plenary
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Public Engagement Champion |
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Building healthy communities. It's simple statement, but a complicated and ambitious goal—especially when the vision is to implement this goal throughout the entire state of California. It is exactly what The California Endowment (TCE) has been working to achieve over the last 10 years, with the help of partners throughout the state—including UC Davis. Christine Tien, senior program manager for TCE’s Building Healthy Communities initiative, has been vital to this effort in the Sacramento region. Read her story.
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Are you a researcher with a commitment to justice, equity and diversity? Join the Feminist Research Institute of UC Davis for the Asking Different Questions research training series. There are a few more sessions through the end of the year—topics range from Making More Accurate Knowledge to Legacies of Colonialism in Science—and they will be great.
Event: November 25 - December 9, 2020
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Join the Detroit Collaborative Design Center and Hester Street Collaborative for a conversation focused on ways that community design practitioners are expanding their community engagement tools and practices alongside neighborhood partners to respond to the constraints of COVID and ensure ongoing and meaningful participation and ownership.
Event: December 1, 2020 | 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
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This event focuses on publicly engaged research in the arts, humanities, and humanistic social sciences, with special attention to the Mellon Public Scholars Program at the UC Davis Humanities Institute. Program manager Stephanie Maroney will facilitate an information session about the 2021 Mellon Public Scholars call for proposals and share additional resources regarding support for community engaged research at UC Davis.
Event: December 15, 2020 | 12 p.m. - 1 p.m.
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Global Affairs encourages applications for proposals that foster international research collaborations; create innovations in internationalizing the curriculum and support the philosophy of “Global Education for All”; and build new interdisciplinary, international partnerships. UC Davis Academic Senate faculty members and Academic Federation faculty with PI status are eligible to apply.
Deadline: December 7, 2020
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Academic Senate and Federation Service Awards |
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The Academic Federation invites nominations of candidates whose focused and sustained service to the University, or disciplinary or technical expertise shared with the public and nonprofit sector, contribute to the University’s mission of discovering and advancing knowledge beyond research and reaching.
Deadline: December 16, 2020
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The Academic Senate seeks diverse nominations of faculty who spend significant personal time creating and implementing public service activities, to those who have public service as “part of their job” but whose programs demonstrate excellence and significant impact beyond the normal expectations of their day to day job.
Deadline: December 21, 2020
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UC Davis students used data science and visualization to shed light on this year’s ballot initiatives through the California Election 2020 Data Challenge.
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Theatre professor Larry Bogad and his dancing mailboxes have been “Delivering Democracy” this election season, capturing media attention for their artistic activism.
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A widespread effort to achieve environmental justice in Sacramento is gaining momentum.
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For thousands of years, Native Americans in what is now California and across the West treated and nurtured fire like the natural resource it is through the practice of cultural burning.
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The University of California, Davis, has been named as the only university to earn the 2020 Platinum Institutional Award for Global Learning, Research and Engagement from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, or APLU.
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Through public engagement, you can educate others as well as bolster your career, writes Erica Gobrogge. To determine which opportunities to pursue, consider a four-step approach
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UC Davis engineers are finding new ways to monitor and mitigate the effects of wildfires through new technology such as fire-proof houses, chemical sensors to study smoke and drones to monitor fires in real time.
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Partnering for the Public Good |
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At a time when our planet and its people face unprecedented challenges, UC Davis is reimagining the vital links that connect university, community and society. Philanthropic support plays a vital role in advancing UC Davis research, education and collaborations that make the world a better place. We invite the partnership of university friends who share our vision of discovery, learning and engagement for the public good. |
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About Public Scholarship and Engagement |
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Public Scholarship and Engagement is fostering a culture of engagement at UC Davis that increases the university’s impact through mutually-beneficial relationships that have local, regional, statewide and global reach. We envision UC Davis research, teaching and learning that serves society and makes a positive difference in the world.
Thanks for reading this month's issue! If you have something you would like to include in the next issue of Public Scholarship and Engagement, please submit through this form. Our readers want to hear about your projects, events, publications, opportunities and more.
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