Exploring Equitable Community-Campus Relationships

by Karla Bird (Editor), Suchitra V. Gururaj (Editor), Sara B. Moore (Editor), Andrea Robles (Editor), Cindy Vincent Claar (Editor)

Overview

This volume offers replicable approaches for centering equity as a core value in community–campus relationships.

Through interrogation of contemporary practice, chapter authors examine the many ways in which equity is deliberately centered in community relationships, practices, research, and pedagogies, thereby accounting for how equity is defined, perceived, and shaped across diverse cultures, perspectives, and institutions. With a focus on relationship-building as a pathway to meaningful community engagement, contributors reflect on successes, obstacles, and moments of vulnerability, describing how relationships were initiated and lessons learned to ensure equitable values were centered and upheld. The text concludes with a meaningful discussion on the implications of these practices and the future of this work: equity continues to be a foundational element of any community–campus partnership.

This book will be an essential resource for academics and communities alike, particularly community partners, graduate students, scholars, and faculty who seek to center equity within their community-engaged work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040671252
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/18/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	274

About the Author

Karla Bird is Tribal Outreach/Relations Specialist at the University of Montana.

Suchitra V. Gururaj is the inaugural Assistant Vice President for Community and Economic Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin.

Sara B. Moore is Chair and Associate Professor of Sociology at Salem State University.

Andrea Robles is a sociologist at the Office of Research and Evaluation at AmeriCorps.

Cindy Vincent Claar is Director of Strategic Initiatives and Communication at Boston University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Contemporary Landscape of Equity with Higher Education; PART I Introduction: Frameworks of Equitable Community Engagement 1 Sites of Resistance, Sites of Healing: Equitable Community Partnerships Through Local Resident Engagement; 2 Putting the 6 Rs into Practice: Building an Equitable Collaboration between Indigenous Communities and a Western University; 3 Research Engagement Readiness: Preparing Community and Academic Partners for Bidirectional Engagement and Equitable Partnership; PART II Centering Equity through Authentic Relationships and Co-Design Approaches 4 Nurturing the Vā in Community–Campus Partnerships with the Sāmoan Community in Oceanside, CA; 5 Building Equity through Partnership: Developing a Rural Health Equity Resource Hub for Gender-Based Violence Survivors in Rural Western Kansas; 6 Literacy as a Weapon: Empowering Black Youth through Equitable Community Engagement; 7 Equitable Community Engagement: A Case Study on Blending Social Impact and Social Justice Perspectives in Service-Learning Contexts; PART III Introduction: Centering Equity through Authentic Relationships and Co-design Approaches 8 Toward Epistemic and Environmental Equity in Campus/Community Relationships; 9 Solutions Not Studies: Lessons Learned and Suggestions for Co-produced Arctic Research; 10 Detroit’s Climate Justice Journey: Centering Community Empowerment in University Partnerships; 11 Bridging Cultures: Equitable Academic-Community Engagement in West Philadelphia; PART IV Introduction: Lessons Learned through Tensions and Obstacles 12 Dancing Toward Equity: Decolonizing Land Grant Engagement with Indigenous Communities; 13 Equity and Belonging in Community Archiving: The Arkansas Chinese Heritage Project; 14 Navigating Power, Equity, and Co-creation in a Community–University Partnership: Critical Reflections on the Long-term Relationship between Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative and Tufts University; 15 From Students to Partners: Negotiating Equity in Community Engagement Projects between First-year College Students and Early-career Professional Community Partners; PART V Introduction: The Institutionalization of Equity as a Pathway to Sustainability 16 Field Experience in a Third Space: Centering Equity and the Voices of Community-based Partners in an Introductory Field Experience for Novice Teacher Candidates; 17 Grounded in Community: Transformative Relationships in an Evolving Campus–Community Partnership for Equity; 18 Building an Equitable Community–Campus Relationship through Exploring the Great Things Together: The Experience of Collaborative Badlands USR in Taiwan; 19 Conclusion: A Path Forward Together

Editorial Reviews

“This book makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on community engagement in higher education as it meets the current moment. For the community engagement field, it expands on the difficult but necessary work that has been building for a decade examining how power, politics, positionality, identity, and implication are addressed by community engagement. It meets the current moment by courageously standing firm against attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion on colleges and universities. Equitable community engagement provides a way for institutions of higher education to claim their larger purpose of building a multiracial democracy committed to equity. In the current dark times, this book shines as a beacon of hope.”

John Saltmarsh, Professor Emeritus, Higher Education, UMass Boston

"This volume is ground-breaking for scholars, educators, and administrators committed to sustainable community-campus partnerships. The contributors provide rich detail about their processes, lessons learned, and best practices that center community needs and culture."

Loan Dao, Professor of Asian & Asian American Studies, CSU Los Angeles

"This important volume calls attention to exciting, multidisciplinary efforts to foster equitable community engagement. Practitioners within and beyond academia will gain deeper understanding of methods for collaborative and intentional work across universities and communities, and they will find their own work greatly enriched by the frameworks and examples showcased."

Roopika Risam, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies and of Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College

“Exploring Equitable Community–Campus Relationships is a timely and thoughtful exploration of how colleges and universities approach community engagement. Drawing from various institutional and community contexts, the contributors present theoretical frameworks and practical strategies that interrogate traditional, often extractive, engagement models. The collection's explicit focus on equity as a practice that requires intentionality, shared power, and accountability is a standout feature. Some case studies demonstrate how institutional constraints of community engagement risk exacerbating cultural harm and community distrust. In contrast, others provide practical strategies that produce co-created knowledge and sustained, meaningful partnerships, offering a sense of optimism. The strength of this collection lies in its candor and commitment to transformation and its audacity to reimagine how colleges and universities embody collaborative partnerships with the community to sustain substantial and lasting change.”

Joseph L. Lewis, Ph.D, Associate Dean for Access, Diversity, & Inclusion, Princeton University

From the Publisher