Dan W. Butin

My research and academic work in the last five years has focused on a critical argument for the institutionalization of community engagement in higher education: namely, we need to reconceptualize the service-learning movement as an intellectual movement in order to reconnect to and expand upon its vision of meaningful connections between colleges and communities and the notion of an engaged campus. This, in turn, necessitates the development of an “academic home”—i.e., academic programs such as majors, minors, certificates, and interdisciplinary programs—and the concomitant critique and debate that flourishes within such academic contexts. I have laid out the theoretical grounding and empirical studies for this argument across multiple articles in the last few years as well as in my most recent book. Additionally, I have founded the Center for an Engaged Democracy at Merrimack College, which serves as a central research and action hub for developing, coordinating, and supporting academic programs focused on community engagement, broadly defined. I view such steps as an important complement to the broader service-learning movement which can foster and sustain knowledge production, dissemination, and translation within the community engagement field, and thus lead to productive critique, expansion, and sustenance of community engagement in higher education.

Relevant Research

Butin, D. W. 2010. “So Close and Yet So Far To Go: A Review of Teacher Education, Diversity, and Community Engagement in Liberal Arts Colleges” in Teachers College Record, 10/28/2010.

Butin, D. W. 2010. “Can I Major in Service-Learning? An Empirical Analysis of Majors, Minors, and Certificates”, Journal of College and Character, 11(2).

Butin, D. W. 2010. Service-Learning in Theory and Practice: The Future of Community Engagement in Higher Education. NY: Palgrave.(Read chapter 1)

Butin, D. W. 2010. “Service-Learning as an Intellectual Movement: The Need for an ‘Academic Home’ and Critique for the Community Engagement Movement.” In Problematizing Service-Learning: Critical Reflections for Development and Action, edited by Trae Stewart & Nicole Webster. Information Age Publishing.

Butin, D. W. 2009. “A Review of Service-Learning and the Liberal Arts” Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences.

Butin, D. W. 2008. Editor. Service-Learning and Social Justice Education. New York: Routledge.

Butin, D. W. 2008. “Service-Learning” In Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education, edited by Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. NY: SAGE Publications.

Butin, D. W. 2008. “Justice Learning: Service-Learning as Justice-Oriented Education” in D. W. Butin (Ed.) Service-Learning and Social Justice Education. NY: Routledge.

Butin, D. W. 2008. “Saving the University on His Own Time: Stanley Fish, Service-Learning, and Knowledge Legitimation in the Academy” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning.

Butin, D. W. 2007. “Rethinking Engagement: Strengthening Faculty Buy-In to Community Engagement.” Change, Nov/Dec., 2007. Pp. 34-37.

Butin, D. W. 2006. Guest Editor. “Future Directions for Service-Learning in Higher Education”, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 18(1).

Butin, D. W. 2006. “The Limits of Service-Learning in Higher Education”, The Review of Higher Education, 29(4). Pp. 473-498.

Butin, D. W. 2006. “Special Issue Introduction: Future Directions for Service-Learning in Higher Education”, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 18(1). Pp. 1-4.

Butin, D. W. 2006. “Disciplining Service-Learning: Institutionalization and the Case for Community Studies”, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 18(1). Pp. 57-64.

Butin, D. W. 2005. Editor.  Service-Learning in Higher Education: Critical Issues and Directions. New York: Palgrave.

Butin, D. W. 2003. “Of What Use Is It?: Multiple Conceptualizations of Service-Learning in Education”, In Teachers College Record, 105(9), pp. 1674-1692.

Center for an Engaged Democracy

Center's website

2011 Summer Research Institute on the Future of Community Engagement in Higher Education

Resources from 2010 Summer Institute

A draft list of academic programs -- majors, minors, and certificates -- in community engagement .

A Note on Terminology:

There is no single way to talk about the multiplicity of options and approaches to community engagement in higher education: community service-learning; civic action; undergraduate research; public scholarship; community-based research; participatory action research; civic engagement; community studies; public service; social action. This is part of the problem in defining and linking the field. It is also, though, a potentially powerful opportunity to bring a wide-ranging set of intellectual traditions and perspectives to bear on the critical question of institutionalizing community engagement within the academic structure of higher education.