Standing Up for the "We"

The work of public engagement is central to the academy's civic purpose. But how can we identify approaches to public engagement that meaningfully advance a thoroughgoing civic reconstruction of higher education, rather than serve as cover for avoiding such foundational reform? Unconvinced that there is a single formula, the author tries in this essay to tell just one story, from her own experience, about the past, present, and possible future of the public engagement imperative in higher education.