Overview

Situated in the newly emerging interdisciplinary field of “civic studies,” I center my work as a scholar and educator on the project of advancing democratic varieties of public engagement in the academic profession. Specifically, I seek to understand how academic professionals and students perceive and deal with conflicts, tensions, and dilemmas that arise when they engage with their non-academic partners in the public work of naming and framing problems, deciding what should be done about them, and acting to pursue cultural ideals and values and common and public interests. Beyond simply understanding, I seek to improve higher education's public engagement work in ways that support and enhance rather than hinder and diminish people's voices, capacities, interests, power, and agency. To this end, I seek to contribute to the project of advancing the theory and practice of public scholarship and civic professionalism in higher education. I am currently on leave to serve as Co-Director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (http://imaginingamerica.org).

Research Focus

Community-based processes of research, learning, and development that involve and engage diverse participants carry a good deal of promise. But they also involve a number of difficult challenges. With respect to the promise of these processes, I seek in my research to understand the ways they serve not only as a means of solving problems, but also of facilitating human and community development and growth, and of cultivating and sustaining democratic publics. With respect to challenges, I seek to understand how academic professionals navigate and deal with the conflicts, tensions, and dilemmas that arise when they engage with their non-academic partners in the public work of naming and framing public problems, deciding what should be done about them, and acting to produce public goods and advance common and public interests. Beyond simply understanding, I seek to improve higher education's public engagement mission in ways that support and enhance rather than hinder and diminish people's voices, capacities, values, power, and agency. To this end, I seek to contribute to the positive project of advancing the theory and practice of civic professionalism in the land-grant system, especially in relation to the task of facilitating a shift to sustainable community food systems.

Outreach and Extension Focus

Using tools from narrative inquiry and action research, I seek to provide opportunities and resources that help people and organizations reflect on and learn from their public engagement work and experiences. I serve as the principle investigator for Cornell's participation in a five-year (2011-2016) integrated teaching, research, and extension project (supported by a $5 million grant from USDA) called "Food Dignity: Action Research on Engaging Food Insecure Communities and Universities in Building Sustainable Community Food Systems." I also serve as an associate editor of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement http://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/index.php/jheoe/index.

Teaching Focus

I teach two related graduate courses that focus on the history, philosophy, politics, theory, and practice of community education, organizing, and development, with special attention to complex relationships and tensions between democracy, science, and education. I also teach a research design and methods course on narrative inquiry and analysis in social science and action research.

Additional Links

• Profiles of Practitioners
• Food Dignity
• Link to CALS Research and Impact
• Link to Research & Expertise Across Cornell

Presentations and Activities

• Extension Reconsidered. October 2011. Epsilon Sigma Phi. Syracuse, New York.
• Storying and Re-storying the Land-Grant System and Mission. June 2011. Penn State University. State College, PA.
• Scholarship as Collaborative Public Work: Cooperative Extension’s Unique Niche. October 2010. University Of Wisconsin Extension. Madison, Wisconsin.

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