About PEP

Public Engagement Project (PEP) The Public Engagement Project supports and trains faculty members from all disciplines to use their research to contribute to social change, inform public policy, and enrich public debate. CRF, in collaboration with ISSR, the School for Public Policy, and the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program, spearheaded this program, which has resulted in national exposure for faculty in public media outlets such as PBS, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Huffington Post, to name a few. Two former CRF scholars, Jamie Rowen and Rebecca Ready were selected as PEP scholars this past year.

The Public Engagement Project was founded in 2007 by social, behavioral, humanities, and life scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who wanted to expand the engagement of scholars with the world outside the academy. Faculty from the Center for Public Policy & Administration, the Center for Research on Families, the Department of Sociology, and the Psychology of Peace & Violence Program in the Department of Psychology were involved from the beginning. 

PEP's Mission and Vision

The Public Engagement Project supports and trains faculty members to use their research to contribute to social change, inform public policy, and enrich public debate. Scholars learn new skills from experts and from each other to improve their communication and engagement with the media, community groups, policymakers, and practitioners. The Project also helps faculty members build their own networks of institutions and individuals who can apply their research findings, and it helpscreate institutional spaces for communication between academics and non-academics who do applied work in common areas of expertise. This public engagement not only expands the impact of research on society, it also improves the quality of research. By developing a new generation of public intellectuals, the project enhances the public’ s understanding, value, and use of research, and promotes greater integration of research and its application.

Learn more by visiting the PEP website!

View the CRF affiliates connected with the Public Engagement Project below.