September 17, 2020 | Issue 11 |
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Since our office was formed in 2018, rewarding and recognizing public scholarship in research, teaching, and creative practice has been one of our primary goals. When Tessa Hill joined our team as Associate Vice Provost in April, she was charged with implementing the recommendations put forth by the Provost's Work Group on Public Scholarship. Their recommendations center around five main themes: Merit, Promotion, and Tenure; Faculty Development; Education, Awareness, and Recognition; Faculty Resources; and Faculty Recruitment and Retention
As we prepare for a new academic year, Tessa and I sat down for a conversation about their report and her plans to introduce ways to recognize public scholarship in university policies, programs, and faculty recruitment, merit, advancement and promotion reviews.
Below is an excerpt from our conversation:
What was the purpose of the Provost's Work Group? What makes their recommendation report important to this office, and why now?
Michael Rios: “This is really about beginning in earnest something we heard loud and clear from faculty even before the office was formally established – faculty recognition. Whether it was in our surveys, interviews, or workshops back as far as 2018, many feel that public scholarship and the recognition of it, specifically, is uneven at best. Many faculty feel that despite being a public university, there are few incentives for doing public engaged research and/or teaching especially with respect to the merit and promotion process.”
You joined the team after the Provost’s Work Group had submitted their recommendations. Were there any challenges in taking that report to begin formulating your own work plan having not been previously involved? Any advantages?
Tessa Hill: “I really like that the report highlights the collaborative nature of this work: it points out who will need to work together to solve these problems which I think is an important and strategic approach. The report also considers what the barriers will be so it doesn’t feel unrealistic to me, it feels very grounded in reality."
I encourage you to read the full interview with Tessa and me to learn more about how we are working to foster a culture of engagement at UC Davis. You can find more detailed information about the Provost’s Work Group recommendations on our website.
In community,
Michael Rios
Vice Provost, Public Scholarship and Engagement
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Through a Public Impact Research Initiative grant, Laura Kair, MD and E. Bimla Schwarz, MD and their non-profit partners Golden Journey Empowerment are working with UC Davis researchers identify ways to improve clinical care provided to Black mothers and to develop culturally-appropriate interventions to improve breastfeeding rates and reduce perinatal disparities throughout Sacramento and the state of California. |
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Watch our Public Impact Research Initiative grantees and Feminist Research Institute Collaborative Fellows Grace Wang, Dept. of American Studies and Julie Wyman, Department of Cinema and Digital Media, talk about their documentary film profiling the life and legacy of Elayne Jones, world renowned percussionist and the first Black woman in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
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Part 1: Unearthing Indigenous Land Dispossession in the Founding of the University of California.
This two-part forum examines the 150,000 acres of Indigenous land that funded the University of California is intricately tied to California’s unique history of Native dispossession and genocide, and how UC continues to benefit from this wealth accumulation today. We will then explore current university initiatives with tribes and engage in a community dialogue on actions the University of California can take to address their responsibility to California Indigenous communities.
Event: September 25, 2020 | 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
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On October 7, 2020 (Energy Efficiency Day) UC Davis will host the second Global Energy Managers Workshop, where facility managers, students, and faculty from around the world will meet to share and learn about energy-saving, cost management, and carbon reduction strategies. Given the current pandemic, our event will be online this year. We have an exciting agenda and hope you can participate. This event is free of charge.
Event: October 7, 2020 | 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
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Know any UC Davis students who want to get real-world experience in political advocacy and public affairs? Encourage them to become a University of California Advocacy Network Student Ambassador.
Deadline: September 20, 2020
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UC Davis graduate students can apply now to participate in a quarter-long workshop on how conduct research grounded in a commitment to justice. Participants will earn one unit graduate course credit, get a certificate of completion, and be eligible for research funds.
Deadline: September 21, 2020
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The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation invites proposals from multidisciplinary teams that include scholars from the humanities, arts, and humanities-inflected social sciences for the Mellon Just Futures Initiative competition. The program will provide funding to support visionary, unconventional, experimental, and groundbreaking projects in order to address the long-existing fault lines of racism, inequality, and injustice that tear at the fabric of democracy and civil society.
Deadline: September 23, 2020
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The Jefferson Science Fellows (JSF) program is an innovative model for engaging the American academic science, technology, engineering, and medical communities in U.S. foreign policy and international development. The JSF program is open to tenured, or similarly ranked, faculty from U.S. institutions of higher learning who are U.S. citizens.
Deadline: October 1, 2020
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Public Engagement Champion |
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Tessa Hill has was deeply committed to public engagement long before becoming our Associate Vice Provost. Working together with a team of UC Davis faculty and students, community partners, local businesses and policy makers, Hill is tackling ocean acidification caused by climate change. Read her story.
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The University of California, Davis, received more than $1 million in grants from the National Science Foundation to convene and engage faculty, researchers and industry experts in expanding research and undergraduate instruction at Hispanic Serving Institutions and Minority Serving Institutions, or HSIs and MSIs.
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Two UC Davis historians have received funding from the National Park Service to address the educational gap in U.S. women’s history and role in the nation’s national parks.
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We shouldn’t be seeking public input for a project; we should get to know our neighbors so that their needs are front and center in our mind, and create proposals, ideas or projects from there.
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The teaching center at Aggie Square will be unlike any other educational venue on the two UC Davis campuses. The question is how faculty will take advantage of it.
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Rare research on the effects of a pandemic undertaken during an ongoing disaster shows that COVID-19 has severely affected people’s daily emotional lives and mental health, increasing their stresses the longer lockdowns, fear of getting sick and financial strains continue
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About Public Scholarship and Engagement |
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Public Scholarship and Engagement is fostering a culture of engagement at UC Davis that increases the university’s impact through mutually-beneficial relationships that have local, regional, statewide and global reach. We envision UC Davis research, teaching and learning that serves society and makes a positive difference in the world.
Thanks for reading this month's issue! If you have something you would like to include in the next issue of Public Scholarship and Engagement, please submit through this form. Our readers want to hear about your projects, events, publications, opportunities and more.
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