Please join us September 30, 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. at the Illini Union (Room 103) for the first event of the 2025-26 Community Engaged Research Series, Cultivating Connection and Trust through Community-Engaged Research. This inaugural event will include opportunities to network with other community-engaged researchers, learn about community-engaged resources on campus, and hear from a successful academic community research team.
Community-engaged research is crucial for building public trust, especially as confidence in higher education and research institutions wanes. In this session, Anna Mendoza, a professor of Linguistics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Sadia Rahman, a case worker at The Refugee Center, will share their perspectives about the importance of trust in their community-engaged research partnership, and how their collaboration has shifted the perception of research partnerships and cultivated connection with the community. Attendees will also have the opportunity to network and discuss ideas for the year while enjoying a light breakfast.
Agenda
8:30 – 9 a.m. – Check-in and breakfast
9 – 9:10 a.m. – Welcome and speaker introductions
9:10 – 9:40 a.m. – Presentation by Anna Mendoza and Sadia Rahman
9:40 – 9:50 a.m. – Questions
9:50 – 10 a.m. – Resources overview by CERS team/transition to breakout tables
10 – 10:30 a.m. – Breakout tables
The Community-Engaged Research Series is organized by the College of Education, Center for Social & Behavioral Science (CSBS), and Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with the addition of new co-hosts College of Applied Health Sciences, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and School of Social Work, and in collaboration with the College of Fine and Applied Arts.