Community of Practice

Sticky Messaging and Audience Engagement

Wed., Dec. 11, 2024

9:30 am – 12:30 pm

This community of practice will focus on research communication – especially communication of your research agenda and societal impacts to audiences outside of academia. 

Each session will be grounded in concrete communication skills, including “structural” elements (for example, identification of target audiences and crafting narrative structures) and “surface” elements (namely, language, style, and nonverbal communication). Participants will also consider high-level ethical frameworks for engaging with diverse publics, while reflecting on common pitfalls when research communication insufficiently recognizes the expertise and knowledge bases of these audiences. 

These dynamic and hands-on sessions will give participants an opportunity to apply these skills by drafting and revising a pitch for an explainer or op-ed piece. Additionally, the community of practice space will give participants an opportunity to build community with other scholars across the university, identify common communication challenges, and generate ideas, strategies, and solutions for effective research communication.  

To this end, participants will be encouraged to generously share their experiences and expertise as “knowers,” while leaning into their positionality of perpetual “learners” who are open to learning and relearning lessons from each other. 

While drop-in attendance for individual sessions is permitted, the sessions are sequential and build on each other therefore attendance of all three sessions is encouraged. Any questions? Contact [email protected].