Claiming Space for Square Pegs: Community-Engaged Communication Scholarship and Faculty Assessment Policies

Abstract

When communication and media scholars work shoulder-to-shoulder with communities, the research products are necessarily as dynamic, creative, and diverse as the community members involved. Although such active scholarship generates rich, socially impactful knowledge, it often holds scant value within the arcane world of faculty tenure and promotion committees, where single-authored academic journal articles are the bread and butter of academic careers. As a result, members of the public are left to work with university partners who are typically precariously employed, with little institutional backing for community collaborations. Drawing on the Community-Engaged Scholarship Partnership’s research into Canadian faculty assessment policies, this article will lay out the case for concrete academic reforms that recognize, respect, and professionally support the “square pegs” of community-engaged media research.