Publicly Engaged Scholarship Review Committee

Publicly Engaged Scholarship [PES] is an umbrella term that describes integrative scholarly activity integral to a faculty member’s academic work & role. PES encompasses different forms of making knowledge, creative activity, teaching and service in, about, for, and with diverse publics and communities. Through a coherent, purposeful sequence of activities, PES contributes to the public good and yields artifacts of public and intellectual value. 

In practice, PES takes the form of projects that variably combine teaching, research, creative activity, and service with dissemination. Engaged scholars generate products which can include both traditional peer-reviewed products, such as journal articles and presentations, as well as a broad range of other scholarly artifacts that are appropriate to the context, aligned with project goals and responsive to the publics engaged. 

In addition, engaged scholars often see knowledge making as a distributed effort. They demonstrate this stance on the nature of knowledge by involving community members in various aspects of their work including dissemination efforts as both co-authors and co-presenters. These facets of PES pose a challenge to traditional academic peer review, which is acknowledged in the current IU Indianapolis P&T Guidelines:

• “Peer review of public scholarship must take into account the faculty member’s investment in such activities as building community relationships, engaging in reciprocal learning and project definition, experimenting with collaborative methods, and writing grants to support collaboration with faculty, students, and public stakeholders. Peer review must also evaluate the types and the appropriateness of the outcomes produced based on the faculty member's goals, methods, and public(s).” 

Addressing the challenges of peer review of PES is not a boutique issue at IU Indianapolis, impacting only a small number of faculty. Rather, it intersects with larger campus concerns to retain and support the success of a diverse professoriate.

The PESRC provides a local resource to help candidates respond to existing barriers by providing action-orientated guidance and evaluative feedback. The PESRC is designed to help primary and unit committees better understand how civic and community engagement enhances the quality of scholarship in the dossier.

The focus of evaluation by the PESRC offers a complementary source of peer review focused specifically on assessment of the quality of the engaged dimensions of a candidate’s work. At present, committee review is limited to formative evaluation. For more information, visit our resource page).

PESRC review places a specific emphasis on the strength of the candidate’s engaged scholarly work and the degree to which their work to date places them on a strong trajectory for successful tenure and/or promotion including: 

• How well submitted materials illustrate the ways scholarly civic and community engagement enhance the value and impact of the candidate’s scholarly work, including relevant community(ies), publics and audiences. 
• How the candidate may strengthen or further develop their work considering their trajectory towards tenure and/or promotion. 

Reviews may focus on the declared area of excellence, the balance or degree of integration across areas. The committee can also be asked to omit analysis of non-involved areas.