engaged scholarship

Preparing students to meaningfully engage with and learn from community experts


image of Shoba RamanadhanShoba Ramanadhan, Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences (HSPH), creates curricular experiences that highlight community partnerships and incorporates diverse student experiences for shared knowledge building in the classroom and within the community. To do this, Ramanadhan integrates principles of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) into her teaching methodology—an approach that includes collaboration with community partners on research design and implementation. Bringing this style of research into the classroom models critical practices of partnership and setting shared goals in collaborative work. As part of this, students are encouraged to share their experiences, especially practice-based expertise from their public health backgrounds. This allows students to learn how they might work within communities based on the experience of peers and community members, rather than just the expertise of the instructor. This informs classroom discussions when approaching a public health research topic. This approach has been transformative for students: “When I started this work about 19 years ago, I had to learn about  what a community-based organization practitioner’s day actually looks like, how their organizational structure works, how poorly paid they are. And so, to me, the teaching is really understanding what you don't know and who you can ask, filling those gaps, so that you can be better equipped to be useful to the community you’re working with.”

Risk-taking in higher education : the importance of negotiating intellectual challenge in the college classroom

Risk-taking is foundational to the structure and goals of higher education. Encouraging students to consider new, diverse, even uncomfortable ideas is needed to develop a critically informed view of the world and establish one’s own values and beliefs. Yet, students and parents are increasingly... Read more about Risk-taking in higher education : the importance of negotiating intellectual challenge in the college classroom

Supporting Risk-Taking in the Classroom


image of Musa SyeedMusa Syeed, Briggs Copeland Lecturer on English, teaches screenwriting in the Creative Writing Program. Students are introduced to documentary and hybrid filmmaking in his course, Get Real: The Art of Community-Based Film. While learning about the technical and ethical considerations of creating a short narrative film or documentary, they also are challenged to effectively engage with their community in an intentional, responsible way that addresses issues of authorship and social impact. The Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship helps with curriculum design and also funding support (for example, providing gift cards for community participants or funding a TA).

A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Service-Learning on Students

This meta-analysis of the impact of service-learning on students shows empirical support for the position that following certain recommended practices—such as linking to curriculum, voice, community involvement, and reflection—was associated with better outcomes.

Encouraging equity through engaged scholarship


Flavia PeréaFlavia Peréa, Lecturer in Sociology (FAS) and Director of the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship, teaches Pursuing Truth and Justice: Principles and Methods of Equity Through Inquiry. This course aims to be “an example of what equity and inclusion can look like in the curriculum” both through the topics covered—for example, liberatory research methods, oppression, and structural injustice— and by supporting students “to be able to think about messy things, put out hard questions, and really wrangle with ‘what does it even mean for me as a student at Harvard to be doing this work’?”  

Harvard Library Databases

Many of Harvard Library’s directories can help instructors find organizations or scholars by region, area of expertise, etc. 

Mindich Program for Engaged Scholarship

The Phillips Brooks House Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship created the Mindich Program for Engaged Scholarship, to integrate academics, public service, and community engagement.

Service Learning at Harvard

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health lists service-learning opportunities for students in courses across the University. 

Service Learning for Harvard Medical School

The Office of Enrichment Programs and Division of Service learning at Harvard Medical School assists students in developing quality service programs locally and internationally.

Connecting Community Service to the Classroom

In October 2014, the FAS Standing Committee on Public Service held a “Connecting Community Service to the Classroom” symposium that brought in national experts to share best practices.

Working with local communities to engage with global issues


Maria Luisa Parra-VelascoMaría Luisa Parra-Velasco, Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures, requires her advanced Spanish language learners in Spanish 59: Spanish and the Community to complete four hours a week of engaged scholarship with local organizations as part of their language learning experience. Through classroom discussions, travels from Cambridge to Chelsea (for example), meaningful interactions, and conversations in Spanish with members of the Latino community, they explore powerful concepts like “the borderlands” as related to global migration, changes in local demography, and in-between identities.