DePaul University Research Services > Research Development > Scholarship Learning Communities

Scholarship Learning Communities

​​​Scholarship Learning Communities are small, collaborative groups of faculty members who come together to engage in ongoing, focused learning throughout the academic year. These communities provide a supportive environment where faculty can explore and deepen their understanding of a specific topic or issue related to their academic and professional interests.  The goal is to foster a sense of shared purpose and continuous professional development, while creating a space for faculty to exchange ideas, challenge perspectives, and build connections with colleagues from different disciplines.​​ 


Faculty of any rank can serve as facilitator, who proposes the topic and provides a structure for the group, scheduling meetings and enabling interactions and resource-sharing outside of meetings. The facilitator is a learner too; they do not need to be an expert in the topic. Facilitators receive an honorarium of $1000.

Facilitator proposals are due April 1st for SLCs that will be offered in the following academic year. To submit your proposal, click here

Faculty of any rank can participate. The SLC will meet regularly through the academic year to learn about a chosen topic together. At the end of the year, the SLC shares what it’s learned with the DePaul community in some way. Participants receive an honorarium of $300 each when they share their work at the end of the year.  

Once the SLC topics are chosen, faculty can submit an application. Applications are due by June 1st. The maximum number of participants per SLC is 10. 

ChatGPT and Text Generative AI in Research

Facilitator: Ignacio Luri, Driehaus College of Business

This learning community will explore ChatGPT and other Text Generative AI applications to learn their implications for research. Meetins will be held monthly, with each meeting covering a different TexGenAI tool or a different aspect of this complex technological and sociocultural issue. Meetings will be discussion-heavy, with participants taking turns to lead each discussion. Read more here.

Sustainability at DePaul - Finding Synergies and Collaborations

Facilitator: Kyle Grice, College of Science and Health

The goal of this learning community is to bring together scholars in sustainability-related areas from across DePaul to share our scholarship, find synergies, and develop collaboration opportunities. A key output will be a document about the sustainability-related research and scholarship at DePaul at to identify funding opportunities to support collaborations identified through the SLC. Read more here.

AI, Ethics, and Society

Facilitator: Bamshad Mobasher, Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media

The goal of the AI, Ethics, and Society Scholarship Learning Community is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to explore focused research questions related to the societal impact of AI technologies and ethical considerations for the development and deployment of these technologies in different domains.  The activities of this learning communities will hopefully lead to further cross-college and cross program collaboration on AI-focused research projects or grant proposals, especially those with a societal impact. Read more here.

Academic Writing Success & Accountability Group

Facilitator: Kim Amer, College of Science and Health

Writing scholarly manuscripts requires dedicated time, concentration, confidence and mentorship. To increase successful publication of scholarly manuscripts this group will have monthly meetings with specific content and writing goals. Follow up each month will focus on individual successes. Weathering decisions regarding publication will also be discussed. Read more here.

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