Bridging Campus and Community: Arts and Sciences Engagement Symposium

Feb. 13, 2026 | 9 a.m.-8 p.m. | Hale Library and K-State Student Union

Join K-State faculty members, instructors and graduate students for a free, on-campus symposium designed to strengthen community-engaged teaching, research and creative work. Participants will gain practical strategies for expanding the impact of their work beyond the university and for incorporating applied learning experiences into their courses.

Highlights

  • keynote-led workshop on curriculum and syllabus design
  • panel with local community organizations
  • presentations from faculty members who have led successful engagement projects
  • networking with campus partners
  • evening community-involved orchestral performance commissioned by Tallgrass Artist Residency.

The public is welcome. This come-and-go symposium is for anyone interested in building meaningful partnerships and enriching student learning through community engagement.

Event Schedule

Come and go as you please. All sessions will be in-person and not live-streamed. Unless otherwise noted, all sessions, including the Networking Coffee Hour, will be in 581 Hale Library.

  • 9 a.m. – Check-in
  • 9:30 a.m. – Keynote Speaker: Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo, Vice Provost for Research, Parsons School of Design at the New School
  • 10:30 a.m. – Community Organizations Panel: Hear from key community leaders about integrating academic learning with local organizations
  • 11:30 a.m. – Faculty Round Tables: Learn how K-State faculty members are productively engaging with diverse communities
  • 12:30 p.m. – Lunch break (on your own)
  • 1:30 p.m. – Curriculum Design Workshop: Led by Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo and Evren Uzer, Principal Investigator for Community Engagement 101 curricular research at the New School
  • 3 p.m. – Networking Coffee Hour hosted by Chapman Center for Rural Studies
  • 7 p.m. – Tallgrass Regenerative Orchestra performs "Eight Quilts for the School" composed by J. Clay Gonzalez for the Kansas-based Tallgrass Artist Residency and performed by students, K-State faculty members and Manhattan community members – K-State Student Union, Courtyard

Registration

Registration is free and helps us plan the symposium.

Register

 

Featured Guests

Keynote Speaker

Cynthia Lawson JaramilloCynthia Lawson Jaramillo, professor of integrated design at Parsons School of Design, The New School, is a practitioner and scholar of social design and design education and an internationally exhibited artist. Since joining The New School in 2003, she has held several leadership roles including as dean of the School of Design Strategies and associate provost for distributed and global education. She is associate editor of the Journal of Design Strategies and a member of the design education networks of AIGA, Future of Design in Higher Education, and DEL Conference, for which she serves on the committee. As a consultant, she has worked internationally with organizations such as CARE and the World Bank. A Fulbright scholar, her work on interdisciplinary design education, design and social impact, and the ethics of community engagement has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals including Visible Language and Dialectic, and as chapters in books including MIT Press and Routledge publications. The DEED Lab, which she co-founded in 2007 and currently directs, is known globally for its research on the artisan sector, especially critiquing the role that designers and entrepreneurs play in extracting money and value from craft communities.

Curriculum Design Facilitator

Evren UzerEvren Uzer, associate professor of strategic design and urban practice at Parsons School of Design, The New School, is a New York City-based educator, urban planner and community practitioner working on civic engagement in planning and design. Her current research focuses on activism, community engagement in collaborative processes, critical heritage and resistance studies, and feminist spatial practices. For education-focused partnerships and co-design projects, she regularly collaborates with NYC-based community organizations and public agencies. She is the principal investigator for the Community Engagement 101 curricular research project and the Foundations: Teaching and Learning Frameworks for Equitable Community Engagement course. Her practice is currently split between community engagement, planning and design work at the Collective for Community, Culture and Environment, an interdisciplinary collective of women and women identified individuals working on projects that further economic resilience, cultural diversity, public health, social justice and environmental sustainability, especially focused on engaging low- and moderate-income residents and communities to shape decisions about their environment and everyday life.

Tallgrass Regenerative Orchestra

J. Clay GonzalezJ. Clay Gonzalez, a composer, director and producer specializing in site-specific, large-scale musical works that engage communities in collaborative sound-making. Gonzalez wrote "Eight Quilts for the School," a participatory sonic immersion piece that takes its name from quilts by local Kansas artist Michelle Wolfe, as a commissioned work for the Tallgrass Artist Residency. Through these eight quilts, the work depicts ecological succession and the cycles of the seasons in the Flint Hills—from a springtime prairie fire all the way to the stars on a clear winter evening. The piece was inspired by Gonzalez's experiences in the Tallgrass Preserve and reflects the surreal expansiveness and otherworldly beauty of the local landscape. Drawing directly from the ecology in and around Manhattan, the work transforms elements of this place into an immersive sonic experience.

We are calling on K-State and Manhattan community members to help bring this piece to life! Performers of all backgrounds are welcome—beginners, hobbyists, amateur guitarists, computer musicians, folk musicians, professionals, informal singers, virtuosi, performers of all styles and genres. No experience is needed. Learn more and register to participate.

Community Panelists

  • Stephen Bridenstine, Flint Hills Discovery Center
  • Kendra Kuhlman, Manhattan Arts Center
  • Daniel Skucius, Riley County Extension Director
  • Kelly Yarbrough, Tallgrass Artist Residency

Faculty Presenters

Got questions?

Contact Syneva Colle Hernández at scolle@k-state.edu.