Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Beyond The Research/Service Dichotomy: Claiming All Research Products For Hiring, Evaluation, Tenure, And Promotion., Laura L. Ellingson, Margaret M. Quinlan

Women's and Gender Studies

As qualitative communication researchers, we encounter daily stories of the persistent reluctance in the academy to vaue work that steps outside of the traditional report format for hiring, evaluation, tenure, and promotion. Devalued genres include writing for the general public (e.g. op-eds, blogs), embodied performancees, reports for community organizations, and non-profit website material. Yet dismissing these "other" necessary creative products of our research reinforces a dichotomy between research and service. Although the former is valued almost exclusively as legitimate scholarship and its boundaries carefully patrolled, the latter is devalued and disparaged, ironically amid increased demands for such work as resources …