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Community Engaged Scholarship

Community Engaged Scholarship* (CES) is centered on a mutually-beneficial collaboration between the university and a community partner outside the academy. The purpose of the collaboration is to bring together the specialized knowledge of the university with the specialized knowledge of the community to generate new knowledge that contributes to the public good. CES meets the needs of the community partner as defined and expressed by the partner, with measurable outcomes. The collaborative work is characterized by robust participation by both the university and community partners and results are disseminated to all partners and beyond.

 Definition of Terms

  • By community we mean an organization, entity, or simply people, outside of academia.
  • By engaged we mean a partnership between community members and the university that is marked by mutual respect, in which all partners are significantly and equitably involved in the partnership, community needs are the motivation for the partnership, and the goals and outcomes of the partnership are mutually beneficial.
  • By scholarship* we mean a process of inquiry that applies a suitable methodology to answer a question driven by community needs and goals, and that contributes to a body of knowledge. The outcomes of CES include both traditional peer-reviewed products as well as items of use to the community partner that would not have been created without the scholar’s input.

*At CSUSM, we mean scholarship and creative activity.