Sturgill, associate professor of journalism, has been selected as the 2024-26 Center for Engaged Learning Scholar.
Amanda Sturgill, associate professor of journalism, has been selected as the 2024-26 Center for Engaged Learning (CEL) Scholar. During her term, she will focus on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and engaged learning in higher education.
In addition to her disciplinary research, including We Are #Altgov: Social Media Resistance from the Inside and Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News (both published by Rowman & Littlefield), Sturgill has contributed to scholarship of teaching and learning on community-based learning and study away. She co-led the center’s 2015-17 research seminar on Integrating Global Learning with the University Experience: Higher-Impact Study Abroad and Off-Campus Domestic Study and co-edited Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad (published by Stylus).
The review committee noted that Sturgill’s experience across engaged learning contexts and her expertise in journalism, communication and AI make her the right scholar to do this work at this time. Sturgill’s application reflected a strong alignment between the center’s goals and her own professional trajectory. This synergy will positively inform Sturgill’s contributions to the center’s open-access resources via blog posts, an annotated bibliography and other online resources.
During a two-year appointment, CEL Scholars develop expertise in a specific aspect of engaged learning and create resources on that topic to be shared through CEL’s website and in other scholarly venues. The CEL Scholar position is an opportunity for an Elon faculty member to develop and advance a professional development trajectory that includes scholarly activity on an engaged learning topic.
Sturgill is the seventh Elon faculty member to be named a CEL Scholar. Current and past CEL Scholars include David Buck, Caroline Ketcham, Ketevan Kupatadze, Buffie Longmire-Avital, Phillip Motley, and Aaron Trocki. A call for applications for the 2025-27 CEL Scholar will be released in fall 2024.