Rackham Program in Public Scholarship

🗓️ Save the date: Ph.D. Connections is April 3 and 4, 2025! This career conference will help Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows:

• Gain an increased awareness of careers available to Ph.D. recipients in a variety of sectors
• Learn about skills and key competencies that are important in different industries
• Develop strategies and build networks to explore careers beyond the professoriate

Learn more and register: myumi.ch/P32me

Meet Reuben Riggs-Bookman, Rackham Ph.D. candidate (Anthropology and History) and Community Engaged Course Design Workshop participant. Learn more about Reuben's experience with this semester-long workshop with U-M Ginsberg Center and the Rackham Program in Public Scholarship.

Q. Reuben, how did participating in the Community Engaged Course Design Workshop shape your approach to teaching?

A. I participated in this workshop soon after becoming a first-time GSI. The experience helped me articulate my values around empathy-driven teaching and gave me a chance to explore what this type of teaching feels like as a student and as an instructor. The Community Engaged Course Design Workshop helped me find my identity as a teacher.

Q. How did the Community Engaged Course Design Workshop help you grow professionally as an instructor and scholar?

A. The Community Engaged Course Design Workshop helped me grow professionally on multiple levels. It provided bona fides about my teaching experience that have been legible to multiple audiences; it connected me to colleagues I’ve worked with throughout my graduate school career; and it pushed me develop a portfolio of curriculum I’d like to teach one day.

Q. How did participating in the Community Engaged Course Design Workshop enhance your graduate studies?

A. The Community Engaged Course Design Workshop was a much-needed antidote to the "publish or perish" mentality of academia and graduate school. Through the workshop, I carved out space to take seriously the teaching and ethical components of academic work that go beyond research. The workshop helped me feel like I was getting the type of balanced graduate education that I needed to stay in it for the long haul.

Learn more and apply for the Winter 2024 workshop by 10/27: myumi.ch/Xn49b



Image descriptions:

1. Reuben Riggs-Bookman smiles at the camera.
2. Graphic design. Text: Community Engaged Course Design Workshop.

Apply today to be a part of the Winter 2024 Community Engaged Course Design Workshop, a semester-long professional development workshop for graduate students in any field interested in creating an undergraduate-focused community engaged learning course that works with partners off campus to advance student learning: myumi.ch/Xn49b

This workshop is sponsored and facilitated by the U-M Ginsberg Center and the Rackham Program in Public Scholarship.

Application deadline: 10/27



Image description: Graphic design featuring photos of Community Engaged Course Design Workshop participants. Text: Community Engaged Course Design Workshop.

Meet Surabhi Balachander, Rackham Ph.D. candidate (University of Michigan Department of English) and Community Engaged Course Design Workshop participant. Learn more about Surabhi's experience with this semester-long workshop with U-M Ginsberg Center and Rackham Program in Public Scholarship in this Q&A!

Q. Surabhi, how did participating in the Community Engaged Course Design Workshop shape your approach to teaching?

A. I participated in this workshop while I was teaching English 126, a community-engaged first-year writing course, for the first time. It was a massive source of support to regularly discuss both theoretical and practical concerns about community-engaged coursework with the CSED community throughout the semester.

Q. How did the Community Engaged Course Design Workshop help you grow professionally as an instructor and scholar?

A. The workshop combined theoretical readings on pedagogy with practical tips and regular feedback on materials. This combination equipped me to not only design future community-engaged courses, but be a better colleague and mentor to others who want to pursue community engagement.

Q. How did participating in the Community Engaged Course Design Workshop enhance your graduate studies?

A. Aside from the things I've already mentioned, it was a good chance to connect with grad students from a variety of disciplines, and I really enjoyed getting to know Dr. Neeraja Aravamudan, Ginsberg Center director, and Joseph Cialdella, assistant director of Rackham Professional Development and Engagement team.

Learn more and apply for the winter 2024 workshop by 10/27: myumi.ch/Xn49b



Image descriptions:
1. An outdoor photo of Surabhi Balachander.
2. Graphic design. Text: Community Engaged Course Design Workshop

Curious to know more about Rackham's Public Scholarship Grants—and get tips on what makes a successful application?

Check out this Q&A with Joe Cialdella, assistant director of Rackham’s Professional Development and Engagement team and program lead for public scholarship: myumi.ch/GkV6b



Image descriptions:
1. A headshot of Joe Cialdella.
2. Joe's quote: “Rackham’s Public Scholarship Grants require students to go beyond campus and actively involve collaborators from outside the university, which in turn creates broader impacts and generates new insights, findings, and impacts that wouldn’t be possible if students didn’t look beyond campus.”
3. Graphic design. Text: Rackham Public Scholarship Grants. Mandatory Grant workshop: October 3. Application deadline: December 15

Calling all current grad students! Incoming grad students need your wisdom. Apply to be a panelist for our affinity-based "Ask A Grad Student" panels, part of this summer's Grad School 101 virtual event series.

Learn more & apply by 6/12: myumi.ch/QqPkX

Affinity panels will include:

First-generation students
LGBTQ+ students
Master's students
Students of color
Students with disabilities
Student parents and caregivers
International students



Image description: Graphic design featuring a student meeting and text: Affinity Advice Week for Incoming Students - Call for Panelists

The deadline to apply for a Rackham Public Scholarship Grant is October 28!

Twenty-six University of Michigan graduate students have been awarded anti-racism research grants by the National Center for Institutional Diversity's Anti-Racism Collaborative, co-sponsored by Rackham and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy's Center for Racial Justice.

https://myumi.ch/NmxmQ

Awardees hail from across the campus community, including University of Michigan Psychology Department, University of Michigan Department of Comparative Literature, University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan School of Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Department of American Culture - University of Michigan, University of Michigan Department of Communication and Media, Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan Anthropology, University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and University of Michigan School of Information.

The 1913 copper mine strike changed Michigan history forever, and the novel The Women of the Copper Country highlights the central role women played in the struggle. As part of a Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship with Michigan Humanities, University of Michigan Department of Comparative Literature Ph.D. candidate Júlia Irion Martins prepared a statewide reader’s guide to help people understand their story.

https://myumi.ch/rqb93