URBAN Summer Institute: July 13-17, 2026

Benson University Center

At a pivotal moment for community engaged research, URBAN’s 2026 Summer Institute will examine how collaborative inquiry can advance shared power, meaningful participation, and the leadership of those most impacted by systemic inequities. Participants will learn about creative and values-driven approaches to community-based research with public-engaged scholars and connect with community leaders who are committed to research for humanity. 

Together, attendees will consider how to uphold core principles of solidarity and robust action during a time when community engaged research is fundamental in creating a more just and thriving society. Through interdisciplinary dialogue and relationship-building, participants will explore how research can strengthen democracy and foster healthy, thriving communities. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom

A trenchant cultural critic, celebrated sociologist, and award-winning writer, Tressie McMillan Cottom is known for rearranging your brain in the span of a carefully-turned phrase. Her breadth is phenomenal – it moves from the racial hierarchy of beauty standards and the class codes of dressing for work to the predation of for-profit colleges and the stain of racial capitalism on our plural democracy – all while reimagining the essay form for the 21st century as she goes. 

Professor Tressie McMillan Cottom’s first book, Lower Ed, captures the zeitgeist on how profit, and debt, moved from the margins of higher education to bankrupt the very heart of American meritocracy. Influential change-makers like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and activists like The Debt Strike Collective cite her book as important for changing the conversation about higher education. Her sharp insights do not let anyone off the hook – she argues that bad federal policy, state disinvestment, amoral narratives about meritocracy, and prestige-driven cultures of traditional higher education all share responsibility for LowerEd.

Tressie McMillan Cottom is a professor with the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill, a New York Times columnist, and 2020 MacArthur Fellow.

*APPLICATION DEADLINE EXTENDED: JUNE 15th, 2026 OR until all spots are filled

Applicants will be notified of acceptance no later than April 15, 2026. Later applicants will be notified accordingly.