Local and Community Engagement Committee

Written by Susana Muñoz and Heather Shotton, 2025 Local and Community Engagement Committee Co-Chairs

The Local and Community Engagement Committee (LCEC) was formalized in 2021 under the leadership of ASHE President D-L Stewart to center space and place in the conference location through engagement with higher education institutions and Black, Indigenous, and Peoples of Color (BIPOC) communities. Through educational resources and engagement opportunities, the LCEC provides conference attendees with meaningful avenues for learning and reflection.

Denver is located on the traditional territory and homelands of the Nuuchiu (Ute), Tsistsistas (Cheyenne), and Hinono’ei (Arapaho) peoples. Forty-eight Tribal Nations are also connected to and continue to be in relation with the lands that are now known as Colorado. Denver was a site for the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, which sought to relocate Indigenous people from reservations to urban areas as a part of the federal government’s broader termination policy era. Today, Denver is home to a large and thriving urban Indigenous community that is made up of citizens of Tribal Nations from across the country.

Denver has a long and storied history of social movements that have shaped its identity as a city of change and progress. During the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Denver played a pivotal role as a center of activism, with organizations like the Crusade for Justice, founded by Corky Gonzales, advocating for the rights of Mexican Americans. This movement fought for educational reform, labor rights, and cultural pride while amplifying the voices of Denver’s Latinx/e/a/o communities. Similarly, the city has been a key site for Indigenous activism, with movements pushing for the recognition of treaty rights and the protection of sacred lands.

Denver is also known for its contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, where Black activists and leaders worked tirelessly to combat systemic racism and segregation. Organizations like the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver and local NAACP chapters were instrumental in advocating for equity in housing, education, and employment. More recently, Denver has been a hub for LGBTQ+ rights activism, with its role in advancing marriage equality and inclusive policy reforms being celebrated statewide. Environmental and climate justice movements have also gained momentum in Denver, with grassroots organizations working to address environmental racism and advocate for sustainable urban development. Historical and contemporary waves of migration have also shaped the city and continue to evolve through contemporary immigration, particularly from Mexico, Central and South American, East African, and Southeast Asian communities.

These rich histories of social movements provide a powerful context for the 2025 ASHE Annual Conference, inviting attendees to consider how these advocacy, resistance, and coalition-building legacies intersect with higher education. Colorado's higher education landscape includes over 85 institutions serving diverse learners across urban and rural settings. These increasingly diverse and continually shifting demographics of Denver and Colorado require higher education institutions to be responsive to the needs and expectations of a changed and still-changing student population. Advocating for equity, inclusion, and justice in higher education is crucial to ensuring access to educational opportunities, fostering diverse perspectives, and creating an environment where everyone can thrive, contribute, and succeed.

This year's ASHE conference theme, "The Bend in the Arc: Activist Praxis and Justice Through Scholarly Creative Expression," invites us to examine the intersection of academic work and social transformation. With respect and gratitude for this opportunity, we offer the following guiding questions:

• How does your scholarly creative expression address the current challenges to academic freedom, equity initiatives, and inclusive pedagogy while advancing justice within and beyond institutional boundaries?
• In what ways does your work build meaningful partnerships between higher education institutions and local communities during this period of declining public trust in academia?
• Where can we create opportunities for transformative coalition-building across campus constituencies and community partners to advocate for systemic change in higher education?
• How does your work honor and integrate the knowledge systems of the Indigenous peoples of Colorado while supporting their ongoing sovereignty and relationship to place?

It is with these questions in mind that we seek to shape a conference experience that bridges theory and action, centers community knowledge, and advances justice through scholarly creative expression. We look forward to engaging with your innovative approaches to this critical work