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The Duke Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship offers a core suite of interactive workshops designed to prepare faculty, staff, students, and partners to engage in equitable, place-based, and impactful community work.
All workshops are 60 minutes and grounded in the Center’s principles of reciprocity, mutual benefit, and long-term partnership.
Participants may request a single training or a sequence, depending on their needs.
Community-Engaged Scholarship Training Offerings
The Duke Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship offers a core set of workshops designed to build foundational knowledge and applied skills in community-engaged scholarship. Grounded in the Center’s principles, these trainings support faculty, staff, students, and partners in engaging communities in ways that are equitable, place-based, and collaborative.
Participants may take individual workshops based on their needs or engage multiple sessions as a progression. Topics include the foundations of community engagement, identity and cultural humility, asset-based approaches and community mapping, the context of Duke and Durham, and community-engaged research methods and ethics.
Together, these workshops provide a flexible yet cohesive framework for strengthening community-engaged scholarship across teaching, research, and partnership work.
An introduction to the principles, purpose, and practices of equitable community engagement. This session provides a shared foundation for understanding how engagement differs from outreach or service and how it advances the public mission of the university.
Overview
This workshop introduces community engagement as a core component of the university’s public mission. Grounded in the Duke Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship’s principles, the session provides a conceptual and practical foundation for understanding equitable engagement. Participants will examine key commitments such as reciprocity, mutual benefit, asset-based approaches, and long-term partnership, while distinguishing community engagement from outreach, service, and extractive practices.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Define community engagement and distinguish it from related forms of institutional activity
- Articulate core principles guiding equitable community engagement
- Identify risks of performative or extractive engagement practices
- Apply engagement principles to real-world academic and community contexts
- Situate community engagement within the broader public purpose of higher education
Explores how identity, positionality, and bias shape community engagement. Participants reflect on how they show up in community spaces and develop strategies for practicing cultural humility.
Overview
This workshop centers the role of identity and positionality in community engagement. Participants will critically examine how personal, social, and institutional identities shape interactions with community partners. Emphasizing cultural humility as an ongoing practice, the session explores how assumptions, bias, and power influence engagement processes and outcomes. Participants will develop strategies for reflective and responsible engagement across diverse community contexts.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Analyze how identity and positionality influence community engagement
- Distinguish cultural humility from static models of cultural competence
- Identify how bias and assumptions shape engagement practices
- Reflect on their role and responsibility within university-community relationships
- Apply strategies for engaging with communities in ways that are respectful, reflexive, and accountable
Introduces asset-based frameworks and tools for identifying community strengths, stakeholders, and existing initiatives. Participants learn how to avoid deficit-based approaches and align with community priorities.
Overview
This workshop focuses on how power operates in defining community needs, knowledge, and solutions. Participants will engage with asset-based frameworks that shift away from deficit-oriented perspectives and toward recognition of community strengths, networks, and expertise. The session introduces tools for community asset mapping and stakeholder analysis, emphasizing alignment with existing community priorities and efforts.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Differentiate between asset-based and deficit-based approaches to engagement
- Apply community asset mapping techniques to identify strengths and resources
- Analyze how power influences whose knowledge and priorities are centered
- Identify key stakeholders, networks, and existing initiatives within a community
- Design engagement approaches that build on community-defined assets and capacities
Examines the historical and contemporary relationship between Duke and Durham. This session prepares participants to engage with local communities in informed, ethical, and contextually grounded ways.
Overview
This workshop situates community engagement within the specific historical and social context of Duke University and Durham. Participants will explore the evolving relationship between the institution and local communities, with attention to structural inequities, community resilience, and ongoing tensions and opportunities. The session emphasizes the importance of place-based knowledge and prepares participants to engage with Durham communities in informed, ethical, and contextually grounded ways.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Describe key historical and contemporary dynamics shaping Duke–Durham relationships
- Analyze how institutional power and structural inequities influence engagement
- Identify community assets and organizations within Durham
- Apply place-based frameworks to inform engagement strategies
- Demonstrate increased awareness of ethical considerations in local community engagement
Focuses on participatory research approaches and ethical considerations in community-engaged research, including co-creation, data ownership, and accountability.
Overview
This workshop examines community-engaged research as a collaborative approach to inquiry that centers community expertise and shared knowledge production. Participants will explore participatory methodologies, including community-based participatory research (CBPR) and participatory action research (PAR), alongside ethical considerations related to power, representation, and data ownership. The session emphasizes designing and implementing research that is both methodologically rigorous and accountable to community partners.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Define community-engaged research and distinguish it from conventional research approaches
- Identify and apply participatory and collaborative research methodologies
- Analyze ethical considerations specific to community-engaged research
- Develop research designs that incorporate community voice and shared decision-making
- Navigate institutional processes (e.g., IRB) in alignment with community-engaged practices
Custom Trainings
In some cases, the Center may adapt existing workshops to align with specific courses, projects, or initiatives. Customization is most effective when built from one of our core trainings rather than developed from scratch.
We consider customization when:
- The training is connected to a defined course, research project, or program
- There are clear learning goals or outcomes
- Participants will be actively engaged in community-based work
- The requesting group can share relevant context in advance
Customization may include:
- Integrating project-specific examples or case studies
- Aligning activities to a course or research project
- Emphasizing particular methods or community contexts
Please note:
- We do not typically create entirely new trainings outside of our core areas
- Requests without clear goals or context may be redirected to an existing workshop
- Additional lead time may be required for customized sessions