What Is Engaged Scholarship and How Can It Improve Your Research?

Community-engaged scholarship is increasingly viewed as a valuable strategy for strengthening the quality and impact of academic research. This approach involves partnering with relevant groups or communities—those who are the focus of a research study or who may be directly affected by its findings—over the course of a research project. It represents a departure from the traditional top-down, ivory tower approach to research, in which the community is held at arms-length and the scholar is considered the “expert.”