Jacobus panelist at colloquium

LEWISTON — USM LAC associate professor Michelle Vazquez Jacobus was one of three panelists speaking about university and college identities as “community engagement scholars” and institutional challenges to community engagement at the New England Resource Center for Higher Education annual Lynton Colloquium on the Scholarship of Engagement, held on Sept. 30.

The panel featured presentations, discussions and facilitated dialogue inspired by Ernest Lynton’s framing of faculty scholarly activity as inclusive and collaborative work in which academics and community partners share knowledge and expertise in the process of public problem solving. The Colloquium also explored Lynton’s continued influence on scholarly practice and organizational change in higher education.

Professor Vazquez Jacobus has backgrounds in both social work and law. She focuses her work on community-engaged learning and community capacity building, particularly through promoting diversity and multiculturalism. She has co-authored several articles exploring USM’s engagement with the community, including pieces focusing on local immigrant populations, collaborative multi-disciplinary community engagement projects and the importance of community engagement on pedagogy and social justice.