The Power and Effectiveness of Combining University and Community Knowledge (Flyer)
ECHO Recording of Presentation

Presentation slides are available upon request at teachers@lmu.edu.

Presented by: Dr. Phil Nyden (Bio)
Professor of Sociology and Director
Center for Urban Research and Learning , Loyola University of Chicago

In a new model of teaching and learning, Community Research and Learning (CURL) of Loyola University Chicago promotes partnerships between Loyola researchers (faculty and students) and Chicago community groups, city‐wide organizations, and government throughout the Chicago metropolitan region. CURL’s model of collaborative research and teaching stresses active engagement between the community and the university. Such collaborations link the skills and wisdom present within every community with the specialized knowledge and academic discipline of a vital urban university. Working together, community needs are addressed and the academic experience is enriched. What can LMU learn from this model as we seek to strengthen our connection to Los Angeles and expand our use of engaged learning in our courses?

Philip Nyden will talk about collaborative university research approaches that brings together university knowledge and community knowledge.   Specifically, he will discuss the work of the Loyola University Chicago Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) and strategies for developing stronger university-community research networks.   CURL was established in 1996 and grew out of a process that consciously brought together university and community partners in tackling pressing policy issues in Chicago – particularly those facing low-income communities, communities of color, and other marginalized groups.   CURL does not do research on the community, rather it does research with the community.   It regularly works on a broad range of projects from evaluating citywide programs to end homelessness to the economic impact of big box developments on low-income communities.   A number of the projects will be discussed during the talk.

Nyden is Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) at Loyola University Chicago.   CURL is a non-traditional research center at that involves community partners in all stages of research from conceptualization and research design to data analysis and report dissemination. Much of Nyden’s work utilizes this collaborative university-community methodological approach; he has written extensively on this subject.  Among his publications are: Public Sociology: Research, Action and Change (Pine Forge Press, just published);   Building Community: Social Science in Action, (Pine Forge Press, 1997); and "Collaborative Research: Harnessing the Tensions Between Researcher and Practitioner" which appeared in The American Sociologist.  Nyden has done substantial research on what produces stable racially, ethnically, and economically diverse communities in the U.S. and is currently working on a follow-up to a 1998 national, nine-city study funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and published as a dedicated issue of HUD’s policy journal, Cityscape. He is involved in activist researcher networks linking community-based research across regional and national boundaries. Nyden is part of a founding group of the Jesuit Research Action Network, bringing together community-engaged researchers at Jesuit colleges and universities. With colleagues at the University of Technology Sydney Shopfront (Australia) and CURL, he co-edits a peer-reviewed journal, Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement.

Co-sponsored by: Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
The Center for Teaching Excellence
The Center for Service and Action

Lunch will be included, please RSVP to teachers@lmu.edu or (310)338-5866.