Taking its research and expertise beyond campus and into the community, Emory is turning knowledge into conversation and conversation into change. 

What does it mean for a university to serve humanity in the 21st century? For Emory, one answer is public scholarship. In its first year, the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement turned classrooms into community forums, scholars into storytellers and partnerships into platforms for discovery. From music and cooking to medicine and social change, the center is showing what Emory’s 2O36 campaign commitment looks like in action.

Launched in spring 2024 and based at Emory’s Oxford College campus, the center is strengthening the university’s role as a trusted source of insight and connection.

“Universities are institutions devoted to creating and sharing knowledge. Emory is committed to understanding what’s important to members of the public and how we can learn from them,” says Kenneth Carter, founding director of the center and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology at Oxford.

That philosophy highlights the reciprocal nature of public scholarship. It isn’t a one-way broadcast from experts, but an exchange: listening to community concerns, amplifying voices and learning alongside the public as knowledge is created together.

The movement also reflects a broader national trend. Across the country, universities are reimagining their roles in civic life. Emory’s new center brings those aspirations home, aligning with the university’s 2O36 campaign vision of linking discovery with service to humanity.

The center’s first year is a shining example of how Emory can expand the reach of information and ideas through accessibility, creative storytelling, and a desire to serve humanity:

Ideas Take the Stage: Sparking Curiosity Across Disciplines

More than 40 scientists, authors, musicians, filmmakers and scholars spoke at the center’s inaugural Ideas Festival in fall 2024. Grammy-winning producer and hip-hop artist Jermaine Dupri and Georgia Tech assistant professor Joycelyn Wilson opened the event by discussing the intersection of music and research. Participants explored ideas as diverse as the medicinal power of plants, prison education, geological blueprints and the evolution of Southern cooking. “The community has a thirst for information. We look for opportunities to quench it,” says Carter. That energy started a new tradition, with a follow-up festival taking place this October and cementing the Ideas Festival as one of Emory’s most dynamic forums for sparking ongoing conversations between the university and the public.

Conversations That Shape How We See the World

Public scholarship relies on strong partnerships. The center jumped on the opportunity to turn bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell’s Atlanta book signing at A Capella Books into an event sponsored by Atlanta public radio station WABE and hosted by award-winning audio producer Virginia Prescott. Held at Symphony Hall, the event was the fruit of longstanding relationships with the author, the radio station and the bookstore. They discussed the history and influence of social engineering on shaping collective public thought. “When people come together to talk about the challenges we all face, we get closer to solutions,” says Carter.

Fighting Disease Through Dialogue and Discovery

The center also facilitated author John Green’s collaboration with Rollins School of Public Health to raise awareness about the global tuberculosis (TB) crisis. Green, whose book “Everything is Tuberculosis” explores the history of TB, joined Health Wanted podcast host and infectious disease researcher Laurel Bristow for a talk and Q&A session that highlighted the research conducted by the Emory Tuberculosis Center. The event sold out in just six hours and was live streamed to Green’s four million social media followers. Green called it “an opportunity to reflect in community on the world we’ve built and the world we might build instead.”

Training Scholars to Listen and Share — with Impact

If scholars want to bring their ideas to the public, they first need to learn how to effectively communicate them. The Public Scholarship Academy, a four-day workshop, teaches them to share their knowledge in meaningful ways. In the inaugural workshop, the 30 attendees, including physicians, sociologists and classics professors from multiple universities, took classes in storytelling from Stony Brook University’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and improv from Atlanta-based Dad’s Garage. In addition, they received coaching on how to talk to journalists and politicians, create their own podcasts, write op-eds and use social media.

“We’re creating a community of people to help and inspire each other as we do important work,” says Carter.

When Hip-Hop Meets Higher Ed

Inspired by the Ideas Festival, Dupri offered internships this summer to Emory students at his record label, So So Def. The program was a collaboration with the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement, the Pathways Center at Emory College of Arts and Sciences, and the Oxford Center for Pathways and Purpose. The interns learned about the music industry, the attention to detail required by the creative process and the results-driven pace of a thriving company. For Dupri, the internship was about helping a new generation succeed. “I love having young people around me,” he says. “They’ll take this experience and help other people discover new things.”

By linking scholarship with public life, Emory is helping set the standard for what the next generation of universities can and should do: exchange knowledge across boundaries, embrace cultural creativity, and serve as a reliable resource in a time of widespread mistrust of institutions.

You can support students as they explore career pathways through the Oxford Center for Pathways and Purpose and the Pathways Center Fund.