Community-Engaged Scholarship Session 3: Ethics, Power, and Positionality

Session 3:
Community-engaged work requires careful attention to ethics, power dynamics, and personal positionality. This session examines what can go wrong in university-community partnerships and how to prevent extractive or harmful relationships. Participants will develop skills in recognizing their own positionality and practice trauma-informed approaches to community work.
Key Topics
•       Case studies: When community engagement goes wrong
•       IRB considerations for community-engaged research
•       Positionality mapping: Understanding your identity in partnership contexts
•       Trauma-informed approaches to community partnership
•       Navigating institutional power differentials ("Princeton and the community")
 

Series Overview: The Community-Engaged Scholarship Learning Cohort prepares Princeton graduate students to work effectively with nonprofit organizations through an interdisciplinary, experiential program that bridges academic expertise with community impact. Over eight sessions, participants will develop frameworks for ethical partnership, learn practical skills in nonprofit collaboration, and complete capstone projects with organizations that have a social impact mission.
This cohort synthesizes best practices from leading community-engaged scholarship programs nationwide—including Tulane's Mellon Graduate Program, the University of Michigan's Rackham Program in Public Scholarship, Rutgers' Public Humanities Initiative, and Princeton’s Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship—adapted to the unique resources of the Princeton ecosystem and the rich cultural landscape of greater Mercer County, and the state of New Jersey.