Focus on Community: Research Sprints

Faculty and librarians advance constructive collaboration

While 2021 marked the fifth annual Research Sprints, this year’s program went fully virtual for the first time ever. Three KU faculty members were selected to participate in the Sprints, an immersive opportunity to collaborate with a team of expert librarians for one week on a teaching or research project. Emily Tummons, lecturer, Latin American & Caribbean Studies; Ignacio Carvajal, assistant professor, Spanish & Portuguese; and Aimee Wilson, assistant professor, Humanities, spent a week in May working on three separate projects — all together.

“Besides providing dedicated time to work on and think about my project, perhaps the most valuable aspect of the Research Sprints was the privilege of thinking through ideas with the team and other Sprints participants,” Carvajal said. “The collaborative effort revealed possibilities, nuances, and potential for my project that I would have simply been unable to reach on
my own.”

This year’s Research Sprints focused on the theme of generous thinking, as developed by Kathleen Fitzpatrick, author of “Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University.” Fitzpatrick invites academics to listen to their greater communities and build constructive, critical, and collaborative relationships with the public — demonstrating how higher education advances the common public good. In collaboration with the The Commons, KU Libraries hosted Fitzpatrick for an engaging virtual keynote presentation and some small breakout conversations in January 2021. Fitzpatrick is director of Digital Humanities and professor of English at Michigan State University.

“Centering the Research Sprints on Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s concept of generous thinking allowed KU Libraries to collaborate with three brilliant scholars and teachers striving to construct inclusive virtual spaces in collaboration with and in support of traditionally marginalized peoples and communities,” said Karna Younger, open pedagogy librarian. “Their community-minded approach to scholarship and teaching helped contribute to a Research Sprints environment of kindness
and collaboration.”

Tummons worked to create an online, open-access Kaqchikel language-learning tool with multiple learning modules. Carvajal worked on a digital repository of K’iche’ language lessons and literary and cultural content. Wilson aimed to create a digital archive of the “Birth Control Review” and to design assignments to involve students in the use and curation of the archive. All three projects focused on digital humanities and open educational resource creation.

“I would be remiss not to emphasize the care and sense of community collaboration that the team at the libraries brought to the table,” Carvajal said. “I still can’t quite believe that such a star team
came together to help us. I am very grateful.”