GLOBAL EQUITY IN SERVICE-LEARNING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AWARD

Purpose: The Global Equity in Service-Learning and Community Engagement Award recognizes excellence in research and scholarship that advances equity, justice, and inclusion within and across global contexts. Such work might include a focus on the experiences, knowledge, and assets of communities that have been systemically or historically underserved; examinations of SLCE through a lens of global intersectionality, exploring how social identities, national histories, and cultural contexts influence the study and practice of engagement; advancements of decolonizing methodologies or participatory frameworks that promote reciprocity and shift power to community partners; or scholarship that informs more equitable practices, influences policy, and/or contributes to the dismantling of exclusionary systems within the field of SLCE locally or internationally.

Eligibility: Any scholar (or team of scholars) with a distinguished body of work that interrogates power dynamics, centers the voices of historically marginalized communities, and expands our collective understanding of how SLCE can be a tool for liberation and social change across diverse borders and cultures. “Scholar” as used here encompasses those who self-define as “researchers,” “scholars,” or “practitioner-scholars” and does not imply any particular academic status.

Evaluation Criteria

  1. Equity-Centered Research and Inquiry: Depth, rigor, and innovation in research that explicitly interrogates power dynamics, centers the voices of historically marginalized communities, and uses appropriate decolonizing or participatory methodologies.

  2. Global Intersectionality and Contextual Understanding: Extent to which the work examines service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) through a lens of global intersectionality, exploring how social identities, national histories, and diverse cultural contexts influence engagement study and practice.

  3. Advancement of Equitable Practices and Policy: Demonstrated impact or strong potential to inform more equitable practices, influence policy, or contribute to the dismantling of exclusionary systems within the field of SLCE, locally or internationally.

  4. Reciprocity and Power-Sharing: Evidence of advancing decolonizing methodologies or participatory frameworks that actively promote reciprocity, mutual respect, shared authority, and a shift of power and knowledge ownership to community partners.

  5. Generativity and Field-Building: Scholarship that expands the collective understanding of how SLCE can contribute to transformative social change, generating new avenues of inquiry and advancing collaboration or co-creation in scholarly production across borders and cultures.

Nomination Packet

  1. A nomination letter (not to exceed two pages) developed by academic colleagues, students, and/or community partners summarizing the nominee’s contribution and establishing its significance in advancing equity, justice, and inclusion across global contexts (co-authored letters are welcome).

    1. The nomination should be made by a current IARSLCE member.

  2. One letter of support (not to exceed one page) attesting to the quality and impact of the nominee’s work, particularly its global and equity focus. We welcome letters of support from individuals/organizations most involved with or impacted by the scholar’s work.

  3. One publication or other scholarly product representative of the nominee’s work that addresses the award criteria.

  4. A current copy of the nominee's resume or curriculum vitae.