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The Strategic Global Cities Initiative is pleased to present the
first annual survey highlighting cities-related public engagement
and innovative teaching from SGCI Faculty Affiliates:
UConn Engagement in the City: 2018 - 2020

The Sustainable Global Cities Initiative (SGCI) considers the support of urban-related public engagement efforts at UConn to be one of its primary goals.  In capturing the excellence of public engagement and impactful teaching of select SGCI Faculty Affiliates (FAs), this report highlights the rich array of opportunities represented by our cities and urban life for the integration of scholarly research into teaching and community engagement. The challenges of the city attract diverse disciplinary approaches, offer transformative educational opportunities, and provide a means for UConn faculty to apply their intellectual efforts in ways that benefit the communities in which they are located.

This inaugural survey reviews selected activities of 12 SGCI Faculty Affiliates, representing a number of diverse departments and schools ranging from the Landscape Architecture to Sociology to the School of Law.  UConn Engagement in the City has organized the broad concept of "engagement" into three defined sub-categories, which are:

  • Community and Public Engagement
  • Professional Engagement and Recognition
  • Innovating Teaching and Transformative Education

As can be seen by the examples cited in this report (and its sister report, UConn Scholarship on the City), UConn, as a Tier 1 public research university, makes significant contributions to scholarship and thereby creates opportunities for community engagement and innovative, interdisciplinary teaching that reinforce its research mission.  UConn has robust capacity for engaging with cities and towns through multiple disciplines, and that this capacity is being engaged in innovative ways to meet today’s challenges.

The SGCI is proud to promote these efforts and draw as much well-deserved attention as possible to the accomplishments of its Faculty Affiliates. Even so, the examples of innovative teaching and engagement featured in this year's edition of UConn Engagement in the City represent only a portion of the engagement-oriented accomplishments of the SGCI’s Faculty Affiliates.  A comprehensive and updated list of public engagement efforts, teaching innovations, and academic achievements can be found in the individual profiles of our Faculty Affiliate Directory.