06/22/2026
In his 2021 book "The Engaged Scholar: Expanding the Impact of Academic Research in Today’s World," Professor Andrew J. Hoffman writes that “scholars have a responsibility to share their knowledge and insights beyond the confines of academia to positively affect society and help address society’s pressing challenges.” He calls this “engaged scholarship.”
Yet there are several inherent qualities of academic scholarship that can result in barriers to engaged scholarship.
Journalist Nicholas Kristof once said, “Some of the smartest thinkers on problems at home and around the world are university professors, but most of them just don’t matter in today’s great debates.”
So how can we make them matter? How can we change the narrative around the value and impact of academic scholarship?
In 2024, Professor Keith Robinson, Associate Dean for Research at Wake Forest Law, approached Dean Andrew Klein about a new idea: the Engaged Scholarship (ES) Pilot Grant Program. “Engaged scholarship is something that scholars know they should be doing, but it tends to be something we put on the back burner,” says Professor Robinson. “I wanted to make it a little bit more deliberate.”
Since piloting the ES Grant Program, Wake Forest Law has seen a significant increase across metrics measuring engagement.
Learn more about the ES Pilot Grant Program and its impact, featuring Dr. Alyse Bertenthal, Professor Chris Nero Coughlin, Dean Keith Robinson, and Professor Scott Schang:
The Need In his 2021 book The Engaged Scholar: Expanding the Impact of Academic Research in Today’s World, Professor Andrew J. Hoffman writes that “scholars have a responsibility to share their knowledge and insights beyond the confines of academia to positively affect society and help [...]
