1. Rackham Program in Public Scholarship

Rackham Program in Public Scholarship

Rackham’s Program in Public Scholarship helps graduate students develop the experience and knowledge necessary to lead collaborative research, teaching, and creative projects with community partners and organizations beyond the university through workshops, funding, and resources.

A group of six people sit around a table in a meeting room, three facing the camera, two with backs turned, and one in profile. Notes and documents are visible on the table.
  • Audience seated in rows, attentively watching a presentation or event indoors.

    Creating Home, for and with Each Other

    Rackham Ph.D. candidate Irene Routté’s public scholarship focuses on how refugee-run organizations and youth councils foster a sense of home for Congolese newcomers to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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    Adapting Crops for People and the Planet

    Rackham Ph.D. candidate Etienne Herrick-Sutton works with Great Lakes region farmers to identify strategies for improving the environmental and economic outcomes of cover cropping.

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    Lessons in Cooperation

    Rackham Ph.D. candidate Rebecca Wai studies relationships between refugee communities and farmers in Uganda.

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    National Humanities Alliance Highlights Rackham Engaged Humanities Program

    The Engaged Pedagogy Initiative was included in the NHA’s public humanities program training report.

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    Internship Connections: Exploring Medical Affairs

    Pharmacology Ph.D. candidate Loyda Morales leveraged her U-M education and launched a new career trajectory during her experience as a medical affairs intern at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, supported by the Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship Program.

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Current Opportunities

Rackham regularly offers the core Public Scholarship programs and workshops below. Occasionally special initiatives or programs are added. They will be posted here and announced in Rackham’s student newsletter.

  • The Institute for Social Change

    Through workshops, discussions, and learning with presenters and peers, the Institute for Social Change introduces students to the practice of publicly engaged scholarship. The program provides space and mentorship for students to develop their own approaches and project ideas.

  • Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship Program

    Rackham offers both summer and academic term doctoral internships during which students receive career training in multiple fields. Students apply their skills in a range of sectors, from biotechnology and national laboratories to information technology, communications and cultural institutions.

  • Catalyzing Advocacy for Science and Engineering (CASE) Workshop

    Each year, Rackham selects and supports four graduate students to attend the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering workshop in Washington, D.C. Students spend two to three days learning about the structure and organization of Congress, the federal budget and appropriations process, and tools for effective science communication and civic engagement.

  • Community Engaged Course Design Workshop

    The Community Engaged Course Design Workshop is an intensive, semester-long professional development workshop for graduate students in any field interested in teaching a community engaged learning course.

  • Public Scholarship Grants

    Public Scholarship Grants provide funding for projects co-created by students and a community partner that meet shared, mutually beneficial goals at the intersection of a community’s needs and a student’s scholarship.

Campus Resources

Other units on campus can also be resources for graduate students interested in doing public and community engaged research, teaching, and scholarship:

Edward Ginsberg Center

Offers workshops and resources in best principles and practices related to community engaged learning across fields of study. Among these resources are Connect2Community, an online portal that connects students, staff, and faculty to engagement opportunities with non-profits, schools and other community agencies. The Ginsberg Center also offers paid positions as Engaged Learning Graduate Consultants to graduate students with experience in community engaged pedagogy and service learning.

Center for Socially Engaged Engineering & Design

Provides students the necessary space and tools to think more critically about design so that they feel inspired to create solutions that are both innovative and connected to the communities where people live, work, and play.

Shapiro Design Lab

Offers creative workspaces and expert guidance for students, faculty, and staff to develop, experiment, and collaborate on projects through the use of a variety of available tools — from hands-on and digital prototype and design equipment to community engagement resources.

Arts Initiative

Offers support to students, faculty, and staff who are interested in broadening and deepening partnerships with communities and the public through the arts. A Graduate Student Arts Research Grant (GSARG) is a monetary grant of up to $3,000 to support student-led arts work or research as part of a U-M grad student’s studies.

Digital Scholarship Studio

A partnership between scholars, students, departments, and support staff which facilitates and provides a growing number of services and resources for digital projects involving humanities and qualitative social sciences.

Students might also find support for public and community engaged research, teaching, and scholarship through courses, their department, school or college.

Professional Organizations

Many professional organizations support public and community engaged scholarship. Three prominent examples are below:

Campus Compact (CC)

The largest and oldest higher education association dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement. Every year, CC offers several Newman Civic Fellowship. This year-long program recognizes and supports student public problem solvers. Throughout the fellowship year, CC provides students with opportunities to nurture their assets and help them develop strategies for social change—creating a network of connected and engaged student leaders who can support one another in making positive change.

Imagining America (IA)

Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues. IA’s Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) Fellowship grants access to a network for publicly engaged graduate students in humanities, arts, and design. PAGE enhances the praxis and pedagogy of public scholarship; fosters a national, interdisciplinary community of peers and veteran scholars; and creates opportunities for collaborative knowledge production.

Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC)

Composed of a mix of state-public and private institutions, ESC’s is to build strong university-community partnerships anchored in the rigor of scholarship and designed to help build community capacity. ESC grants the Excellence in Student Community Engagement Award which recognizes an individual student or group of students for an exemplary student-led community-engaged program or project.

Mission

Rackham’s Public Scholarship initiatives:

  • Nurture students’ interest and commitment to produce scholarship that serves the public good and community identified needs.
  • Creates spaces for interdisciplinary learning where students can gain professional experience and develop ideas for community engaged scholarly work.
  • Provide professional development opportunities for students to cultivate and use their graduate training in diverse career contexts.
  • Strive to foster ethical, mutually beneficial relationships for students and their partners to achieve shared goals.
  • Nurture students’ interest and commitment to produce scholarship that serves the public good and community identified needs.
  • Creates spaces for interdisciplinary learning where students can gain professional experience and develop ideas for community engaged scholarly work.
  • Provide professional development opportunities for students to cultivate and use their graduate training in diverse career contexts.
  • Strive to foster ethical, mutually beneficial relationships for students and their partners to achieve shared goals.

Contact the Program in Public Scholarship

  • Location
    1530 Rackham Building
    915 E. Washington St.
    Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070

  • Contact
    Email: [email protected]