{"id":35887,"date":"2026-07-16T14:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=35887"},"modified":"2026-07-16T14:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:14:11","slug":"profiles-of-engaged-scholars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=35887","title":{"rendered":"profiles of engaged scholars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Civically engaged political science (CER) research …. involves political scientists collaborating in a mutually beneficial way with people and groups beyond the academy to co-produce, share, and apply knowledge related to power or politics, contributing to self-governance” (Rasmussen et al 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this definition, the word “civic” refers to “How people govern themselves. Engaged research teams are self-governing collaborative groups (composed of community organizations, government actors, social movements, and others); their research strengthens self-governance for others.e with a central focus onquestions of power, politics, and governance.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it look like to be involved in CER? Here are some successful trajectories. These are fictional profiles, but they are based on many real examples that I have known. I share the list partly to broaden people’s conceptions of what success might look like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Hired as an assistant professor in a research-intensive university that grants PhDs in political science, a scholar does some CER before winning tenure\u2013along with other research. Publishes some results of the CER along with much other work. Gets tenure on the basis of the publication record.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Someone with a PhD in political science takes those skills to a job in a nongovernmental organization (NGO). She works in research and evaluation, rising ultimately to be the CEO of the organization.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. A political scientist in a college located in a smaller community becomes an important convener and civic leader in that community. This person brings public figures to town and organizes community forums. The college comes to value this role. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. An experienced social movement activist earns a PhD by studying the movement (studying part-time while continuing to do practical work) and then continues to contribute to the movement as a teacher, scholar, and activist.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. A political scientist takes a first job after earning a PhD is in a research lab based in a university that is entirely funded by grants and contracts. One grants leads to another, and this person ends up directing the lab.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. A professor has a heavy teaching load in an institution that emphasizes teaching. This instructor incorporates students in applied research projects with the local community. They publish informally, for local audiences.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. A scholar\u2019s research agenda is mostly driven by a methodological or theoretical innovation, but they realize they need to do their research with partners. They gain skills in forming and sustaining partnerships.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. A political science professor does positivist research by day and social movement activism in the evenings and weekends. There is little connection between these two full-time jobs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. An early-career scholar takes job in a community engagement center in a university and makes a career in that center and in others like it, ending as the vice provost for public engagement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. A graduate student interested in CER cannot find a way to do CER until after tenure, when his early ideas suddenly germinate, and he conducts a CER project.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. An academic expert on a social group serves frequently on the boards of relevant organizations, moving from local groups to national and international\u00a0ones.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. A political scientist studies local issues, often in dialogue with local activists. This person runs for political office and leaves academia when elected mayor.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I would offer all of these as successful profiles, although one might argue that some represent structural challenges that individuals have partially overcome through unreasonable amounts of struggle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Source: Amy Cabrera Rasmussen, Peter Levine, Robert Lieberman, Valeria Sinclair-Chapman & Rogers Smith \u201cPreface,\u201d\u00a0PS: Political Science & Politics\u00a0symposium on Civically Engaged Research (2021). See also: civically engaged research in political science<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Civically engaged political science (CER) research …. involves political scientists collaborating in a mutually beneficial way with people and groups beyond the academy to co-produce, share, and apply knowledge related to power or politics, contributing to self-governance” (Rasmussen et al 2021). In this definition, the word “civic” refers to “How people govern themselves. Engaged research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35887"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35891,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35887\/revisions\/35891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}