Opportunities and Challenges in Engaged Scholarship: Faith Makes Us Live and the 2010 Haitian EarthquakeMargarita MooneyUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillJanuary 26, 2011

Scholarship as a Process

Cross-National Comparative and Ethnographic Research Design

• National level: immigration policies and religion in the public sphere in US, France and Quebec (Canada)

• Community level: interviews in Miami, Montreal and Paris with 1) Government leaders, 2) Haitian community leaders, 3) Catholic clergy and lay leaders

• Individual level: 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews at Haitian Catholic mission in each site; immigration and census data

Faith as Resilience

“Jesus Came With Us On The Boat”Incarnation and Inculturation of the Faith

“When you feel you are somebody, [that] you are important, you can move mountains, and that is faith.” Active Abandonment

“We Should Give without Expecting to Receive in Return.” Turning Passive Recipients into Givers

“Fight, life is not easy; don’t be afraid, Jesus is there.” Suffering as Redemptive

“We should give without expecting to receive in return.” Transforming Passive Recipients into Giver

Meso-Level: Haitians’ Mediating Institutions

“The church is the only place

people can trust.”

“The only reason churches would provide social

services is if the state is absent.”

Religion-State Consensual Differentiation

“The State doesn’t pay

any attention to our

associations.”

Assertive Secularism

Secular Nationalism

Scholarship as a Process

Diverse Ways of Communicating Scholarship to Multiple Audiences

• Books and Journal Articles• Author-Meets-Critics Panels• Returning to Fieldsites• Newspapers, Magazines, Internet and Social Media– Margarita Mooney’s Homepage– Website for Faith Makes us Live– Margarita Mooney’s Professional Blog– Facebook for friends and colleagues– Twitter account @margaritamooney

Haitian Earthquake of 2010

• Opportunity: Broad interest in scholarship, provided scholars communicate knowledge in diverse ways

• Challenges• Communicating a scholarly voice without jargon• Making just a few main points, not endlessly complex

arguments• Responding to timely events in a short time frame —

hours, not months!

Communicating Scholarship through the Press, Internet and Social Media

Three main points that build on Faith Makes Us Live1. Religion can be a source of resilience in the face of disaster2. Danger of “hubris” of outsiders3. Need to activate the agency of the poor

Disseminated through:1. 9 presentations, 8 media articles, including:2. Miami Herald3. Social Science Research Council’s Immanent Frame4. Carolina Population Center’s Website

Scholarship as a Process

New Research

• Religion and immigrant Integration– “Religion as a Context of Reception: The Case of

Haitian Immigrants in Miami, Montreal and Paris.” (sole authored)

– “Religion and Migration in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Western Europe” (with Matthias Koenig and Philip Connor)

• Religion and Resilience– “Financial Hardship, Religious Resources, and

Psychological Well-Being in Older Adults” (with Matt Bradshaw, Cheryl Roberts and Glen Elder)

Social Media and Scholarship

• Scholarship: Peer-Reviewed and Disseminated Products– Traditional Tools: books, journal articles– New Tools & Audiences: Facebook, Blogs, Twitter

• Alt Metrics(UNC’s SILS ): measuring the impact of scholarship disseminated through social media. – 1/3 of scholars are on twitter– 3% of tweets are citations of peer-reviewed pubs

Thanks to: Tom Swasey and Lori Delaney(Carolina Population Center)

Jason Priem(UNC School of Information and Library Science)

Lynn Blanchard(Carolina Center for Public Service)

Who is on Blogs?

• Phillip Cohen• Andy Perrin• Jeremy Freese• Margarita Mooney

Who is On Twitter?

• @patriclane – UNC News Services• @nihforfunding• @usaid_info• @NSF_SBE • @ WWNsoc - Norton publisher• @ICPSR

Covering your Bases and Hitting a Home Run

Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and You Tube: Four Bases for Reaching Diverse Audiences

Who is on You Tube?

• Dalton Conley videos about his book http://www.youtube.com/user/nortonsoc

• Barbara Entwisle video about National Children’s Study: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hwsjM40g8Y

• George Ritzer on McDonaldization

Modes of Scholarship

Scholarship of Discovery• Breaks new ground in the discipline• Answers significant questions in the

discipline• Is reviewed and validated by

qualified peers in the discipline• Is based on solid theoretical basis• Applies appropriate investigative

methods• Is disseminated to appropriate

audiences• Makes significant advances in

knowledge and understanding the discipline

Engaged Scholarship• … and has direct application to

broader public issues• …which have relevance to public or

community issues• … and by members of the

community• … and practical bases• … and is relevant to sites/focus• …and community audiences• … and public social issues

Adapted from Furco, 2008