I have a really cool SI program to tell y’all about! The second annual Social Innovation research symposium is coming up on March 19th and March 20th. I really encourage you to attend because it is a chance to see what research in social innovation looks like and to network with graduate students conducting this type of research.

To highlight a couple of the panels, The Social Value of Entrepreneurial Activities in New Orleans will critique local social enterprises and evaluate if the value truly goes to the inhabitants who need it, Place-Based Learning & Evaluation of Social Innovations will look at case studies of various projects, and Applied Research in the Youth & Education Sector will focus on the research practices for evaluating the success of programs to improve youth education.

Here’s the official information that I received from the masterminds behind the symposium:

Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking is hosting our second annual Social Innovation research symposium on March 19th and 20th. The theme for this year’s event is Discovering Social Innovation through Engaged Scholarship.

The symposium presents a great opportunity for scholars, students, staff, faculty and practitioners to come together and learn more about how interdisciplinary scholars are approaching research in the field of social innovation. Some of our panels include:

• Social Innovation Scholarship: In search of a field and a theory
  
• Place-based Learning & Evaluation of Social Innovations
  
• The Social Value of Entrepreneurial Activities in New Orleans
• Applied Research in the Youth & Education Sector
  
• Linking Scholarship and Applied Research: Community-based conservation and development

We are kicking off the event in 201 Richardson Memorial Hall on March 19th at 6:30 pm with our keynote speaker Jane Wei-Skillern from the Haas School of Business at UC-Berkeley. Jane will be discussing her work and research on the “Networked Nonprofit”, and will help spark the discussion for Friday on social innovation scholarship.

The panels and activities for the symposium begin at 8:30 am on March 20th in 200 Flower Hall. To attend the symposium, please sign up here. For more information about the event, check out our website.

All of our events are free to attend. We hope to see you there on March 19th and 20th, and please help us spread the word about the event!

Looking forward to seeing you all there on March 19th and March 20th!