Feminist Community Engagement Disrupted: Pathways for Boundary Spanning and Engagement during Disruption

Feminist community-engaged scholars and practitioners value deep relationship building with their community partners, which can be challenging during periods of disruption. Increasingly, disruptions occur at multiple levels (e.g., pandemics, civil unrest, community/campus violence, partner staffing and leadership turnover, experiences of illness or dramatic shifts in caregiving responsibilities). During disruptions, engaging partners in deep and meaningful ways requires innovation and creativity. Authors chronicle a multiyear, campuswide interdisciplinary learning community about feminist community engagement disrupted. Authors describe the ways in which feminist community engagement practices informed how the learning community was envisioned and convened and the various learning community stages over time. Throughout, authors share reflections on how meaningful this learning time and space has been and how participation in the learning community has influenced their thinking and practices. Conclusions address lessons learned useful for other boundary-spanning community-engaged scholars and practitioners and those who develop programming to support them.