Organizing Students

Some professors have made their public scholarship projects a collaborative effort by drawing on the input, creativity, and resources of their undergraduates. Not only do these various projects engage students and make the subject of study relevant to them, this work also serves a public scholarship function by making resources, information and insights available to the general public.

• Professor Taso Lagos’ American Press and Politics class finished winter quarter with the Metamorphosis Conference where students debated each other over critical issues of the day. The event allowed them to understand a dynamic and important social process in a democracy and to gain a better understanding of how citizens are affected by public debate. With invited guests from the university and the media watching, the students gathered around a round table and engaged in discussion and debate.

• Public Service Ad Project – In the fall of 2005, Philip Howard helped to direct a team of undergraduate students in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington to produce more than 60 public service ads using personal media such as camera phones, pdas, and simple computer software.

• Professor Matt McGarrity, who teaches Introduction to Public Speaking, worked on a project with students that took them out of the classroom and “to the streets.” The students delivered speeches in downtown Seattle during the holiday season around issues of technology (such as media regulation, privacy, etc.) and brought what they had learned in class to a public setting.

• Seattle Wi-Fi Map Project – Philip Howard worked with a team of undergrads at the UW's department of Communication to develop the Seattle Wi-Fi Map Project. This project set out to make a map of Seattle's Wi-Fi networks.