For decades, the American Sociological Association (ASA) has advocated for the inclusion of scholarship directly applicable to community development and social justice as an integral part of the tenure and promotion pathway. Universities often emphasize the need for community engagement and social impact in their mission statements. Yet scholars whose work addresses real-world problems through collaborative research with community partners often face significant barriers to advancing their careers.
ASA has long viewed community-engaged scholarship as vital to the future of sociology. To reinforce ASA’s commitment to community-engaged scholarship in the tenure and promotion process, the Association launched an initiative to address this misalignment between universities’ stated priorities and current faculty reward systems. Funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, the “Shifting the Academic Ecology to Support Community-Engaged Scholarship in Tenure and Promotion in Sociology” project provides a framework for incorporating community-engaged scholarship into the tenure and promotion review process. Considering current events, including expanding economic inequality, systemic racism, and the climate crisis, this initiative underscores the urgent need for academic-community partnerships to co-create solutions.
A Framework Rooted in Disciplinary History
Pioneering sociologists such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Jane Addams demonstrated the value of community-engaged research, and many recent scholars have followed the examples set by these early scholars for the discipline. Today, a growing interest in this approach reflects both scholarly recognition of its importance and increasing expectations from funders for community impact. Funding agencies are increasingly requiring grant-supported projects to demonstrate significant social impact, which can be achieved through research co-created by scientists and community partners.
“Working in deep partnership with community organizations and members has long been the purview of only tenured faculty,” said Rebecca London, professor of sociology at the University of California-Santa Cruz, who chaired the Sociology Action Network (SAN) Advisory Panel. “Junior scholars have been warned that these types of collaborations will work against them in the tenure process. These new guidelines support existing community-engaged scholars and also create an incentive for community-leaning junior scholars to see sociology as a liberatory discipline that decries epistemic injustice and has taken steps to remedy it.”
In addition to creating a process that sociology departments can use to transform their tenure and promotion review processes, the project resulted in three other significant outcomes for the discipline: disciplinary guidelines for community-engaged scholarship, an online toolkit, and a new annual award.
Disciplinary Guidelines and CES Toolkit
ASA incorporated what we learned from this project into disciplinary guidelines that were approved by ASA Council in 2025. The newly approved guidelines form the basis of the guidance included in the ASA Community-Engaged Scholarship Toolkit. The toolkit offers practical tools and frameworks for implementing change to the tenure and promotion review process. It empowers departments, faculty, and reviewers to recognize and reward scholarship that serves both academic excellence and community needs. Additionally, the toolkit could serve as a model for other fields to adapt their reward structures to better align with institutional missions and societal needs.
The ASA Community-Engaged Scholarship (CES) Toolkit offers four guides aimed at addressing the interests of different stakeholders in the tenure and promotion process:
- For Departments: This portion of the toolkit provides a comprehensive guide for incorporating community-engaged scholarship into departmental tenure and promotion policies. It outlines the process ASA developed to help departments revise their tenure and promotion guidelines.
- For Implementation: This segment of the toolkit offers a summary of ASA guidelines, providing an overview of disciplinary best practices for evaluating community-engaged scholarship.
- For Faculty: ASA realized that faculty would benefit from guidance when putting together their tenure files. This portion of the toolkit gives practical guidance for community-engaged scholars on how to document and present community-engaged scholarship in tenure and promotion materials, helping scholars effectively communicate the value and rigor of their community-partnered work.
- For Reviewers: To be better equipped to evaluate the work of faculty, external and university reviewers who are unfamiliar with community-engaged scholarship need guidance tailored specifically for them. This portion of the toolkit has resources for tenure and promotion committees and external reviewers to fairly assess community-engaged scholarship using appropriate evaluation criteria.
“By placing value on community-engaged scholarship in tenure and promotion processes, this initiative has the potential to transform academic culture broadly,” said ASA Executive Director Heather Washington. “I am pleased with the outcome of the project and with the promise it holds for the future of our discipline. I’d like to encourage people to use it and provide feedback. And I’d like to thank the William T. Grant Foundation and all those involved in the toolkit’s creation for their support.”
Early Career Award for Community-Engaged Scholars
In August 2025, the ASA Council voted to approve a new annual ASA-wide award recognizing community-engaged scholarship. The Early Career Award for Community-Engaged Scholarship seeks to honor an early career sociologist (i.e., sociologists who completed their terminal degree within the past 10 years) for outstanding community-engaged scholarship conducted through partnerships with community-based organizations or community members.
The award committee will consider the nature of the partnership(s), the quality and relevance of the scholarship, and its impact in terms of contribution to community development and/or social justice goals, and, if relevant, to sociological or public knowledge. To that end, the Early Career Award for Community-Engaged Scholars will recognize scholars who are creating:
- Innovative partnerships that benefit both researchers and communities
- High-quality scholarship that makes a meaningful difference
- New knowledge with real impact on community development and social justice goals
- Contributions that advance both sociological understanding and public knowledge
Click here to learn more about ASA’s Early Career Award for Community-Engaged Scholarship.
Collaborative Development
The CES Toolkit’s development benefited from extensive collaboration with key stakeholders, including current and former Sociology Action Network (SAN) Advisory Panel members Elizabeth Borland, Carol Glasser, Teresa Irene Gonzales, Maria Krysan, Rebecca A. London, Tom Medvetz, Nancy Plankey-Videla, Carrie L. Smith, and Mark R. Warren; as well as the sociology departments at George Washington University, Howard University, and the University of Maryland-College Park; and ASA personnel, Program Officer Carolyn Vasques Scalera and Executive Director Heather Washington.
For more information and access to the complete toolkit, visit the website.