Session: Practice-Rooted, Scholar-Practitioner Research (PRSPR) SIG (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

This proposed SIG emerged from a 2024 SSWR roundtable, “Recentering Community Knowledge through Practice-Informed Research: Empowering Scholar-Practitioner Experience within the Academy”. The roundtable was well attended, with approximately 20 conference participants. We anticipate participation from faculty, doctoral students, scholar-practitioners, adjunct and clinical faculty, community-engaged scholars, and others interested in advancing practice-rooted and community-rooted social work research, with approximately 25 attendees anticipated in the first year. This SIG is unique in creating space for social workers engaged across multiple forms of scholarship, academic roles, and practice settings, including those whose work may not fit traditional research pathways but whose scholarship is deeply rooted in practice and community engagement. While this SIG is organized around the shared professional role and positionality of scholar-practitioners, it is designed as a cross-cutting research space focused on the development, recognition, and support of scholar-practitioners and practice-rooted research across domains of social work scholarship. In this way, it is distinct from topic-specific, field education, or identity-based SIGs. The acronym PRSPR (pronounced “Prosper”) reflects the SIG’s commitment to creating conditions in which scholar-practitioners can thrive in academic spaces that often disincentivize researchers from sustained engagement in direct or clinical practice. This proposed SIG is not affiliated with any external organization or entity. It is being proposed solely as a SSWR Special Interest Group for scholarly networking, research development, and collaboration, and will operate in accordance with SSWR policies and governance requirements.