Kenneth Reardon and Ching-chih Chen have been awarded the 2001 Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement. The award recognizes early-career faculty who practice exemplary engaged scholarship through teaching and research. Recipients are selected on the basis of their collaboration with communities, institutional impact, and high-quality academic work.
Kenneth Reardon
Kenneth Reardon is an Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). Dr. Reardon is a leading practitioner in teaching, involving and leading his students in participatory action research methods to transform both the worlds of the university and the community with which they work. Dr. Reardon is constantly sharing his research and experiences through his invited lectures and publications that document the power of his efforts to empower residents and students alike. He shows what is possible through action research that builds racially diverse organizations capable of learning and acting on the world to improve local conditions of poverty, environmental and social decay and governmental inefficacy. Through his professional service and academic outreach he has worked with individuals and organizations from grass-root organizations in East St. Louis, to the Office of University Partnerships at HUD, to the United Nations.
Ching-chih Chen
Ching-chih Chen is a Professor of Library Science at Simmons College (Boston, Massachusetts). Dr. Chen is a leading researcher in the use of microcomputers, digital imaging, multimedia and communications technologies. Dr. Chen utilizes her professional service and academic outreach to develop new technologies to better enable the practitioners of library science. In addition, she has brought her teachings to over 30 countries to provide training for research and educational programs in the fields of library and information studies. Dr. Chen has published, presented, initiated projects that enable the development of and has lead the effort to broaden the use of technology for the global internetworking of libraries. Dr. Chen has been recognized for her work on many levels including being appointed by President Clinton to the Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee in 1997.
Honorable Mentions:
Nicholas Cutforth is an Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at the University of Denver. Dr. Cutforth’s areas of academic outreach have included urban education, school-university collaboration, ethnographic research and program evaluation. Dr. Cutforth is being recognized for his efforts to utilize physical education and recreation as a means of improving youth development and as a bridge between universities and communities.
Kathleen Farber is an Associate Professor of Educational Foundations and Inquiry/Women’s Studies and Director of Partnerships for Community Action at Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, OH). Dr. Farber is being recognized for her efforts to integrate professional service and academic outreach with the research efforts of university faculty and expanding the educational opportunities available to students and community members. The partnerships that she facilitates are dedicated to redefining the relationship between the university and the broader community through building and sustaining projects that enhance equal educational opportunity, economic development, health and wellness and cultural awareness in Northwest Ohio.
Pierrette Hondagneau-Sotelo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Southern California. Dr. Hondagneau-Sotelo is being recognized for research efforts and involvement of her students in the study and understanding of the lives of the poorest and most disenfranchised immigrants. She not only challenges herself and her students by increasing the data documenting this population, but she also challenges people to become advocates on the behalf of this population.
Rose Jensen is the Director of the Beard Center on Aging and Associate Professor of Sociology at Lynchburg College (Lynchburg, VA). Dr. Jensen is being recognized for her efforts to combine her teaching, learning and research on the complexity of the aging experience and to promote positive aging, socialization and relationships across generations. Her ability to combine her students’ learning and her research has expanded the opportunities available to the senior population in her region of the country.
Judith Primavera is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT). Dr. Primavera is being recognized for her efforts to develop, lead and sustain the teaching and research efforts associated with the Adrienne Kirby Family Literacy Project. This project is a true partnership that links Fairfield University and Action for Bridgeport Community Development in a “resource exchange network” that enables university students, community members and faculty members to utilize one anothers’ expertise talents in mutually beneficial ways.
Jean Trounstine is Professor of Humanities at Middlesex Community College (Bedford, MA). Professor Trounstine is being recognized for her efforts to empower and challenge both her students and women in prison through English composition and Drama. Her research and teaching have enabled students to reach new levels of development and have taught them how to utilize their voices to address social concerns. Her book, Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women’s Prison, based on this work and one of her courses, will be published this year by Saint Martin’s Press.