Faculty
At the Swearer Center, we believe that the intellectual resources of the university can be a unique and powerful asset for the community and that community knowledge can enrich the intellectual enterprise of the university.
We work with Brown faculty in a range of ways to advance teaching, research and scholarship: strengthening students' understanding and abilities and supporting efforts to extend the expertise and skill of faculty to benefit local and global communities.
Our staff can help you navigate the dichotomies between "theory" and "practice," providing support for the development of courses that integrate community work and learning and community-based research that advances scholarship in innovative ways. Please explore the links below to learn about the specific types of support we offer, or meet with us to discuss your ideas and the resources that may be available.
You can support students with an interest in community issues in a variety of ways:
Serve as an Academic or Informal Advisor
- Serving as an advisor through regular academic advising, as a UCAAP advisor, or by informally advising students on how they might engage in the community and integrate their community interests with courses, concentrations, and careers.
Sponsor Independent Student Research and Study
- Serving as a faculty sponsor for student fellowships that support students pursuing work on a particular community or societal issue.
- Sponsoring Independent Study Projects (ISPs) or Group Independent Study Projects (GISPs) through which students investigate a particular community-based issue.
Course Development
- Offering courses that provide students with context and disciplinary and methodological background critical to their ability to engage with societal issues or directly engage students in meaningful community work as a core educational component.
Community-Based Research
- Engaging in community-based research can advance knowledge in the field as well as provide data helpful to the community.
What can the Swearer Center do for you?
Engaged Scholars Initiative
The Engaged Scholars Initiative works to celebrate, support, and strengthen the experiences of faculty and students who seek to integrate teaching, research and practice; advance scholarship; and produce a public benefit.
The initiative supports the university's mission of creating knowledge and "producing graduates committed to a life of usefulness and purpose." The initiative seeks to understand how faculty conceptualize and craft work that addresses an identifiable need and demonstrates rigorous scholarship and innovation in the discipline.
The initiative seeks to advance goals on a number of levels:
- Provide resources and support for individual faculty teaching and research;
- Develop and support a community of scholars at Brown engaged with this work;
- Recognize and expand engaged scholarship across the campus and;
- Contribute to the national practice of engaged scholarship.
Funding and Other Support for Course Development and Community-Based Research
The Swearer Center is pleased to offer a range of grants for community-based courses and research. We can also consult on course development and construction to aid faculty members' integration of research, teaching, learning and community work.
Community Connections
Swearer Center staff can help connect faculty with relevant community resources and organizations. We can also help to identify needs in diverse communities and organizations in Rhode Island, broker community placements and help organize forums and workshops to disseminate community-based work to the Brown community and beyond.