call08

Call for Nominations:

2008 Ernest A. Lynton Award

for the

Scholarship of Engagement

“In short, the domain of knowledge has no one-way streets. Knowledge does not move from the locus of research to the place of application, from scholar to practitioner, teacher to student, expert to client. It is everywhere fed back, constantly enhanced. We need to think of knowledge in an ecological fashion, recognizing the complex, multifaceted and multiply-connected system by means of which discovery, aggregation, synthesis, dissemination, and application are interconnected and interacting in a wide variety of ways.”

—Ernest Lynton, “Knowledge and Scholarship” (1994)

The annual Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement recognizes a faculty member who connects his or her teaching, research, and service to community engagement.

Ernest Lynton conceived of faculty professional service as a reconsideration of the faculty’s service role in the same way that Ernest Boyer conceived of a reconsideration of faculty scholarship: it would find a broader application in addressing critical social issues. Lynton called for a reclaiming of a tradition of “application of the individual’s professional expertise to problems and tasks outside the campus.” As such, “professional service can constitute scholarship of the highest order, equivalent in intellectual challenge, creativity, and importance to scholarly research and scholarly teaching.” Further, this scholarly application of knowledge and expertise signaled the “inevitable overlap of professional service with applied research and also with organized instruction.”

Unlike traditional service-learning awards that focus on the link between teaching and service, the Lynton Award emphasizes engaged scholarly activity more broadly. The scholarship of engagement (also known as outreach scholarship, public scholarship, scholarship for the common good, community-based scholarship, and community engaged scholarship) represents an integrated view of the faculty role in which teaching, research, and service overlap and are mutually reinforcing, is characterized by scholarly work tied to a faculty member's expertise, is of benefit to the external community, is visible and shared with community stakeholders, and reflects the mission of the institution. In addition, NERCHE conceptualizes scholarly engagement in terms of social justice embedded in democratic ideals.

The award will be presented at the annual conference of the Coalition of Metropolitan and Urban University’s (CUMU) annual conference, Building Bridges to Regional Stewardship, which will be held from October 18-21, 2008, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The award recipient will present his or her work at one of the conference’s sessions and will be invited to contribute an article to CUMU’s publication, Metropolitan Universities. NERCHE and CUMU will cover the recipient’s travel expenses.

The recipient of the award will be selected according to the following criteria. Please note that each criterion is weighted to reflect its importance:

Demonstrates a sustained effort in connecting teaching, research, and service to community engagement (Weight: 2);
Uses innovative approaches in making community engagement a distinguishing, integral feature of teaching, research, and service (Weight 3);
Has internal institutional impact (through teaching, developing campus projects and/or programs; involving faculty and students in new and important ways) (Weight: 4);
Can demonstrate evidence of external success, both inside and outside academia (through scholarly output, community impact and/or student learning) (Weight: 4);
Demonstrates a commitment to working with community members through reciprocal relationships (Weight: 4);
Demonstrates a commitment to involving undergraduate students in collaborative research (Weight: 3).

To nominate a faculty member please send NERCHE:

One letter of nomination that fully describes how the nominee meets the six criteria listed above, not to exceed five pages;
The nominee's resume or c.v.;
A personal statement from the nominee which articulates the individual's theory of practice and how this is evidenced in the individual's research, teaching, and service, not to exceed five pages;
Supporting documentation (for example, letters of support from community partners or students, press releases, faculty web sites, abstracts from grant proposals), not to exceed ten pages;
Copies of syllabi, if available, which exemplify the candidate's commitment to innovative, engaged faculty work and written permissions from the faculty member to post the syllabi to the NERCHE website.

Nominations can be made by academic colleagues, administrators, students, and community partners. Self recommendations are also accepted.

More than one faculty member may be nominated. Please follow the instructions above for each nominee.

All nominations must be postmarked by April 25, 2008. The recipient will be notified in June 2008.

Click here to view the list of 2008 Lynton Award Review Committee members

How to submit nominations:

Download and complete the Nomination Packet Checklist,
Send one completed nomination packet electronically to nerche@umb.edu by April 25, and
Mail 4 completed hardcopies of the nomination packet to NERCHE at the address below.

We cannot accept faxed nominations.

Please send hardcopy nominations to:

Lynton Award

New England Resource Center for Higher Education

Graduate College of Education

University of Massachusetts-Boston

100 Morrissey Boulevard

Boston, MA 02125-3393

If you have any questions regarding the Ernest A. Lynton Award, please contact NERCHE at

(617) 287-7740 or via email at nerche@umb.edu.

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