Designing Lasting Impact: Efforts Toward the Institutionalization of a Multidisciplinary Social Justice–Oriented Program Model

• In Event: Leadership Influences

Abstract

Attempts to integrate faculty- and student-led social justice-oriented programming into university structures that could make them more sustainable often run into challenges. Drawing on institutional theory, we locate the source of this challenge in the need to integrate such practices into existing, self-sustaining organizational structures. We present a case study of an innovative and promising model for multi-disciplinary community-engaged learning with social impact. We identify promising strategies employed for institutionalizing this model, as well as obstacles to institutionalization. In doing so, we offer contributions to the literature on social justice-focused initiatives in higher education, as well as broader processes of durable organizational change.

Authors

• Eleanor Anderson, University of Pittsburgh

• Marialexia Zaragoza, University of Pittsburgh

• Ashlyn Salvage, University of Pittsburgh

• Audrey Buzard, University of Pittsburgh