2016 Lynton Award Recipient
The annual Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty recognizes a faculty member who connects his or her teaching, research, and service to community engagement. The award is designated for either pre-tenure faculty at tenure-granting campuses or early career faculty (i.e., within the first six years) at campuses with long-term contracts.
Assistant Professor of Education Mara Tieken
CUMU is proud to announce that this year the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE) and the Center for Engaged Democracy (CED) at Merrimack College have selected Mara Tieken, Ed.D., assistant professor and the associate chair of education at Bates College. A former third-grade and adult basic education teacher, her research focuses on racial and educational equity in rural schools and communities. Her book, Why Rural Schools Matter (UNC Press, 2014), is an ethnographic study of two rural Arkansas communities, examining the roles that rural schools play in rural towns—specifically how they shape a particular community and how they shape the racial landscapes of these towns. Her current project, funded by the Spencer Foundation, examines the factors shaping the college experiences—aspirations, transitions, and persistence—of rural, first-generation students. Tieken also studies community organizing for education reform, publishing an essay in A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform (Oxford University Press, 2011). In addition, she co-authored Inside Urban Charter Schools: Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High-Performing Schools(Harvard Education Press, 2009), a study of five urban charter schools, and has an essay about teaching antiracist history in all-White classrooms included in Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real about Race in Schools (The New Press, 2008). Mara received her Doctorate of Education from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.
Tieken will be presented with the Award at the CUMU Annual Conference, Charting the Future of Metropolitan Universities, which will be held in Washington, D.C., October 23–25, 2016.
Ernest A. Lynton (1926–1998) was a noted national academic leader whose leadership and writing helped to orchestrate the emergence of the ‘metropolitan university.’ His work and dedication to creating effective collaborations between campus, community, and commerce led to the formation of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) in 1989. Lynton also served as the first editor of Metropolitan Universities. A complete bio can be found here.
Photo credit: Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College