Community-Focused
Research and Service
A
small sample of the research interests and professional involvements
CPCS faculty list for themselves in the Faculty Bios illustrates
why CPCS faculty are known as an activist faculty. CPCS faculty
are both scholars and practitioners whose work is overwhelmingly
connected to issues that impact the communities:
Examples
- Shelter
poverty (Professor Michael Stone)
-
Promoting Safe Mobility among Elders by Increasing Awareness
of Vehicle Modifications (Associate Professor Nina Silverstein)
- Understanding
disease mechanisms and their impact on the health status of
African Americans (Associate Professor Carolyne Arnold)
- Family
law and reproductive rights (Associate Professor Shoshanna Ehrlich)
- Ethnic
and minority participation in community affairs and politics
(Assistant Professor Richard Hung)
- Civil
rights: hate crimes, environmental racism, immigration (Associate
Professor Andrew Leong)
- Adult
literacy, and Adult Education and Welfare Reform (Assistant
Professor Lorna Rivera)
- Differential
impact of public policy on racial-ethnic minority populations
(Assoc. Professor Miren Uriarte)
- History
and politics of struggles for justice for blacks in South Africa
and the US (Professor Chris Nteta)
- Participatory
planning and action research in communities. Example: Roofless
Women's Action Research Mobilization and Participatory Action
Research (Professor Emerita Marie Kennedy)
- Welfare
reform and human rights (Professors Vicky Steinitz and Ann Withorn)
CPCS
encourages faculty to pursue work in these and related areas,
and actively recruits faculty who will bring their involvements
in community-based work to the College. The College looks to connect
the interests and activities of our faculty and our academic program
with the express needs of the communities and the constituencies
we serve. Two examples of ways of our efforts in this direction
are the Labor Resource Center and
the Community Resource Center.
The
Labor Resource Center (LRC)
The
Labor Resource Center model is a model of an integrated academic,
service and research program. The Center provides an integrated
model of teaching, research and service (extension) within the
College. The Labor Resource Center has built a strong and impressive
record in all areas of its practice. In doing so, it has modeled
ways in which the three "branches" of an academic institution
can be integrated to strengthen the work of each and the productivity
of the whole. The academic program is closely linked to the
research agenda of the Center, the extension program provides
learning opportunities for current students, and also provides
a pathway to the program for potential students, and the agenda
of the Center is highly responsive to the needs of its constituents
and stakeholders.
Community
Resource Center (CRC)
To
help facilitate the development of initiatives that support
community-based projects and integrate them more fully into
our academic programs and across the University, two CPCS faculty
received to develop the Community Resource Center. The goals
of the Community Resource Center are to connect faculty research
and teaching to community defined needs and to promote civic
engagement for students. The Center will help to provide a structure
for more systematic community outreach and advanced planning
to support coordinated efforts in service learning and community
based collaborative projects. It will sustain community partnerships,
link faculty research initiatives with community needs, and
help students put their knowledge and skills into practice as
they respond to those needs.
