Integrate community perspectives and priorities into your classroom on campus
ProCES supports faculty who dedicate a portion of their course to the public implications of their academic discipline or explore with students the broader societal impacts of a particular field of study by:
- drawing on our diverse network of community partner organizations to arrange a community expert to speak to your class;
- organizing special events that highlight the public implications of academic work;
- connecting students with campus resources relevant to their community-oriented course work;
- providing pedagogical resources for community-oriented teaching.
Engage students beyond the campus
Courses may also include direct engagement with and in the community through mutually beneficial service or research projects that address community-identified priorities and student learning goals. If you want to include off-campus student engagement as part of a course, ProCES can:
- assist in the development of student projects that meet course learning goals and address a priority identified by the community partner;
- arrange and fund logistics (such as transportation, meals, honoraria) for class site visits to organizations that elucidate course themes;
- train and support AIs to supervise community-engaged student projects;
- identify and arrange opportunities for students to participate in community programming and initiatives during the semester that elucidate course themes.
There are many ways to incorporate community-engaged scholarship into your course. Examples include:
Critical reflection encourages students to question deeply held assumptions by engaging with community perspectives.
- Example: HIS 388 Unrest and Renewal in Urban America invites students to examine community perspectives of how U.S. cities have brokered revolution, transformation and renewal, focusing on class, race, gender, immigration, capitalism, and the built environment.
Guest speakers articulate diverse community-based perspectives on course themes.
- Example: ART 329 Architecture of Confinement, from the Hospice to the Era of Mass Incarceration, hosts New Jersey Prison Justice Watch members to discuss the experiences and impacts of prison architecture on individuals and communities.
Site visits engage students’ senses and faculties to stimulate inquiry through observation and deep listening.
- Example: MAE 228 Energy Technologies in the 21st Century visits Mercer County organizations and agencies like The Watershed Institute to explore wastewater wetlands, rain gardens, rain water harvesting, and related technologies.
Service learning creates a “deliverable” or performs a service with a community-based group.
- Example: COS 333 Advanced Programming generates custom web-based applications for non-profit partners.
Artistic collaboration engages students and community partners in theater, film, dance and visual arts projects.
- Example: FRS 173 Respuesta Teatral: Social and Political Performance Inspirations from Latin America engages students with theater-making that challenges social and political structures.
Applied teaching and learning offers students opportunities to design and facilitate instructional services or curricula with community audiences and learners.
- Example: GER/LIN 316 Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy students partner with Mercer County English language learners to practice English and examine praxis.
Empirical analysis and community-based research offers opportunities to examine, analyze, visualize, and discuss socially relevant research and data in partnership with community members.
- Example: URB 385 Mapping Gentrification works with agencies like New Jersey Future to map housing stock and trace patterns of segregation
Browse a list of current ProCES courses to see the breadth of community engagement in the curriculum at Princeton.
Contact Tara Carr-Lemke, Associate Director of the ProCES, to explore support for your course at [email protected].