Townie Tourist

Public scholarship, community-based research, or generative scholarship are all labels that have been applied to me.  My narrative about my work has evolved as I've sought to balance academic modes with community expectations.  What the community is seeking is to have their narratives understood and validated in official spaces. Academics are often offered the opportunity to be the conduit for community voices if they can balance that responsibility with the demands of tenure and promotion.  This balance is not easy to achieve.  As I move into the position as full professor (basically I can't be promoted anymore), I'm thinking about ways to help make this process easier for my junior colleagues. Identifying the peer-reviewed publications that support public scholarship in each discipline is an important first step.  These institutional discussions play in the background as I share the video below. As a historian of the urban history and development, I see the transformation of the African-American community in Winter Park as a wider framework.  By sharing that framework, I can clarify the frustration articulated by the black community and perhaps aide in the creation of a context that fosters better policy that honors the cultural significance of the black community.  This is the always the long term goal, but first historians always want to tell stories.