Community engagement scholarship, research universities, and the scholarship of integration

The definition of community engagement scholarship spans the range of research, teaching, and public service and is expressed across the spectrum of disciplines comprising the modern research university. Much of the literature on community-university engagement focuses on benefits that accrue to the community (Fitzgerald HE, Allen A, Roberts P (2010) Campus-community partnerships: perspectives on engaged research. In Fitzgerald HE, Burack C, Siefer S (eds) Handbook on engaged scholarship: Contemporary landscapes, future directions. Community-campus partnerships, vol. 2. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, pp 5-28, 2010). In fact, engagement scholarship generates enormous benefits for higher education as well. In this chapter, we focus on engagement research and teaching and document how each exemplifies the university’s mission, while simultaneously enhancing opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to embrace the scholarship of integration. Specifically, we document how community-based research and teaching are grounded in engagement scholarship, enrich students’ educational experience, deepen the authenticity of faculty research, create sustainable research opportunities through partnerships, fuel innovations in trans-disciplinary research, and strengthen institutional stewardship. We provide examples of each of these benefits drawing on our experiences at a major public research university.