Statement on Scholarship
“Knowledge production typically has occurred within an intellectual vacuum in higher education, establishing clear divides between the knowers (the scientists, experts, and intellectuals) and the known (the community members seen as an object of study, not a source of knowledge). Through critical community engagement the tables can be turned so that community members are seen as not only a source of knowledge, but as esteemed teachers and mentors providing insightful analysis and leadership in the trajectory of a student’s education, faculty research and the advancement in social change issues. Revamping the traditions of knowledge production so that local knowledge is seen as a valid and an intellectually rigorous source of learning, teaching and research significantly alters the social, cultural, and political landscape of knowledge production in the university, which in and of itself is a profound type of social change, one that constitutes what I consider a major service to the college, discipline and wider community…” Read full Scholarship Statement here!
Tessa Hicks Peterson 