Lauren Cooper G’24 (right), an Engaged Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow in A&S, talks with attendees at the Engaged Humanities Network Community Showcase. Cooper hosted a table display spotlighting Write Out, a community writing collective based in Syracuse that engages youth in the art of storytelling.

The positive impact of community-engaged research was on full display at the Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) on May 2. Throughout CFAC’s galleries, Syracuse University students, faculty and staff, along with community partners, shared highlights from their collaborative efforts over the past year at the Community Showcase, hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences’ (A&S’) Engaged Humanities Network (EHN).

Projects ranged from the Data Warriors, whose scholars, which include local students from Nottingham High School, use math to explore societal and health inequities in Syracuse to help map out a more just future, to Project Mend, an initiative that supports current and formerly incarcerated individuals and their families in using creativity to process their experiences, heal from the impact of the criminal legal system, and gain editing and design skills through the publication of an annual journal. Overall, the event included contributions from over two dozen departments across seven schools and colleges at Syracuse University, along with partners from 30 community-based organizations.

Professor Brice Nordquist kicking off the day’s events at the EHN Community Showcase.

Since its founding in 2020 by Brice Nordquist, Dean’s Professor of Community Engagement in A&S, EHN has steadily expanded its support for community-engaged projects and broadened participation among students, faculty and community partners. This continued growth highlights the importance of its mission: to foster publicly engaged research, teaching and creative work that builds more interconnected and equitable communities.

And the numbers don’t lie. Over the past five years, EHN has:

• Supported over 400 faculty, staff and students at Syracuse University who participate in publicly engaged work;
• Backed more than 20 community-engaged courses; and
• Partnered with over 50 different community organizations.

“When you see all these (community-engaged researchers) packed together in a room it’s really awe-inspiring and uplifting,” Nordquist says referring to the EHN-affiliated projects at the Community Showcase. “It’s amazing what talent and resources exist across our city and our University, and when those two things are working together it makes for a better place for us all.”

Explore the following multimedia gallery to learn about projects at the Community Showcase.

Video below: Introduction with Brice Nordquist, founder and director of EHN and associate professor of writing and rhetoric in A&S.

Layla Riley '28 (left) presented her work with The Breedlove Readers, a Syracuse-based book club for girls aged 13 to 17. This club not only provides access to literature that positively reflects their lives but also offers alternative spaces for them to gather to explore reading and writing and engage in creative activities aimed at fostering social transformation within their communities. She tabled alongside Rochele Royster (right), assistant professor of art therapy in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, who showcased work from her Creative Arts Lab, a pop-up studio that helps people explore their artistic selves, heal trauma and foster social change in their communities.

Video below: Lauren Cooper and Simon Vangel, who received Ph.D.s in English from A&S in 2024, talk about their work with Write Out.

Video below: Caroline Imani Charles G’25 reflects on her involvement with Family Pictures Syracuse, a project that collaborates with Syracuse city residents to uncover the stories behind their family photographs, aiming to create a dynamic community archive of the city's history.

Full list of presenters, projects and Engaged Courses at the event:

• Project Mend (SU Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition with Center for Community Alternatives)
• Write Out (SU Department of English and SUNY ESF Writing with the North Side Learning Center and YWCA)
• Indigenous Northern Landscapes (SU Departments of Geography and Women’s and Gender Studies with Indigenous communities in Japan (Ainu) and Alaska (Inupiat))
• Breedlove Readers (SU School of Education with SU Art Museum)
• Narratio Fellowship (EHN with North Side Learning Center)
• Food Insecurity and Placemaking (School of Design with Food Bank of Central New York)
• Safeguarding Syracuse Communities (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and College of Engineering and Computer Science with Tomorrow’s Neighborhoods Today)
• Culturally Sensitive Excreta Infrastructure Systems (SU Department of Religion and SUNY ESF Environmental Science with Salt City Harvest Farm)
• Data Warriors (SU Department of Mathematics with Nottingham High School)
• Environmental Storytelling CNY (EHN and SUNY ESF with organizations across the region)
• The Turning Lens Collective/Family Pictures Syracuse (SU Departments of English and History with PEACE, Inc.)
• Natural Science Explorers Program (SU Departments of Biology and Earth and Environmental Sciences with North Side Learning Center)
• CODA Educational Support Program (EHN with Deaf New Americans Advocacy, Inc.)
• Teens with a Movie Camera (SU Department of Film and Media Arts with Nottingham High School and North Side Learning Center)
• Food Sovereignty and Seed Rematriation (SU Department of Religion and Native American and Indigenous Studies with Onondaga Nation Farm)
• Syracuse Futures: Southside Connections (EHN with SU’s Lender Center for Social Justice, Dunbar Center, Mercy Works, Southside Neighborhood Association and more)
• HUM/NAT 300 & 400: Stories of Indigenous Dispossession across the Americas (Professor Miryam Nacimento and students)
• HUM/ENG 300: Poetry & Environmental Justice (Professor Lauren Cooper and students)
• MAT 100: Social Justice Mathematics (Professor Nicole Fonger and students)
• SPA 300: Our Community Voices (Professor Emma Ticio and students)
• NAT/REL 200: Indigenous Food Cosmologies (Professor Mariaelena Huambachano and students)
• WRT 413: Rhetoric, Ethics and Just Futures after Prison (Professor Patrick W. Berry and students)
• CSD/HNR 400/600: Culturally Responsive Healthcare (Professors Jamie Desjardins and Stephanie McMillen)

Learn more about the Engaged Humanities Network.