Swearer Center for Public Service

Community-Based Learning and Research Fellowship

Undergraduates support Community-Based Learning and Research (CBLR) designated courses at Brown.

CBLR Fellows work with faculty on planning and/or implementing specific engaged courses. While fellows’ responsibilities vary, they may serve as important peer mentors for students enrolled in the course to which they’re assigned, as well as liaisons between students, faculty, community partners and Swearer Center staff.

Structure

In addition to supporting students' ongoing involvement with community partners or topics that are important to them, this leadership experience should ideally align with the student's academic interests and enhance their communication, partnership-building, organizing, and problem-solving abilities. Although the duties of fellows differ slightly from one course to the next, they all require approximately seven hours per week. 

  • Curriculum development (e.g., identifying relevant course resources, designing assignments or reflective activities, etc.).
  • Facilitating specific class discussions, reflection sessions, and/or holding student office hours.
  • Cultivating and coordinating relationships with community partners.
  • Mentoring students around community engagement components of a course.
  • Documenting and disseminating the results of engaged courses.
  • Supporting longer-term engagement with community partners.

More than one fellow can be matched with faculty of larger courses so that each fellow is responsible for no more than 20 students.

Courses with fellows 2020-present 

*Some courses are not currently offered.
 

Anthropology

  • ANTH 1300: Anthropology of Addiction and Recovery 

  • ANTH 1300: Anthropology of Homelessness

  • ANTH 1515: Anthropology of Mental Health

Education

  • EDUC 0540: Language and Education Policy in Multilingual Contexts 

  • EDUC 0560: Cultivating STEM Identities: Teaching for Equity in the STEM Classrooms

  • EDUC 1190: Family Engagement in Education

  • EDUC 1320: Turning Hope into Results: The Policy Ecosystem of the Providence Public Schools District

  • EDUC 1615: Introduction to Community-based Participatory Research 

English

  • ENGL 1180V: Contemporary Asian American Writers

Engineering

  • ENGN 900: Managerial Decision Making

Ethnic Studies

  • ETHN 1000: Introduction to American/Ethnic Studies

  • ETHN 1750A: Immigrant Social Movements

French

  • FREN 1410: The Refugee Experience: Migrations, Displacements

  • FREN 1410T: l’Expérience des réfugiés et des immigrés: déplacements, migrations (The Refugee Experience: Migrations, Displacements)

Gender and Sexuality Studies

  • GNSS 1300: Gender-Based Violence Prevention

  • GNSS 1510A: Reproductive In/Justice

International and Public Affairs

  • IAPA 1801F: Prison Abolition as Transformative Justice Policy-A Senior Seminar

Literature

  • LITR 1152C: Writers-in-the Community Training & Residencies

Public Health

  • PHP 1550: Substance Use and Vulnerability to Addiction

  • PHP 1650: Race, Racism, and Health

  • PHP 1822 Effective Health Communication For Medically Underserved Populations in an Applied Learning Setting

  • PHP1821 Incarceration, Disparities & Health

Portuguese

  • POBS 1740: Artful Teaching

Sociology

  • SOC 1120: Market and Social Surveys

Funding

CBLR Fellows receive a $1475 stipend for each semester. 

Students as Colleagues

The Swearer Center understands the work of CBLR Fellows as partners in community-engaged teaching, learning and research, peer mentors and leaders, reflection leaders and engaged scholars.

The CBLR Fellowship is a leadership opportunity where student fellows are colleagues working alongside faculty and community partners; thus, the Swearer Center is intentional about the program being called a fellowship rather than a teaching assistantship. The word “fellow” signifies the more broad-ranging work that a student participates in alongside their faculty partner — with an emphasis on the peer-like connotations of the word “fellowship” (i.e., being a peer mentor and support person for students enrolled in their assigned courses).

In some courses, CBLR Fellows also may be collaborating with a teaching assistant.

Apply

Applications are currently closed.

Contact

Questions about the CBLR Fellowship?