EDUCATOR,
DESIGNER &
COMMUNITY BUILDER
Community is the Way
Engaged Writing and Designing for Transformative Change
Community Is the Way is a practical, open-access guide for educators, students, and community partners who want writing, design, and media to give back. Grounded in more than a decade of collaborative work, it offers approaches for building shared power, strengthening community capacity, and creating partnerships that advance justice.
“Community is the Way is a crucial read for anyone who wishes to get involved in researching and teaching community-based scholarship and grow a deep and just sense of building a better and more constructive community.”
— Composition Studies
Aimée Knight
I am an award-winning professor, author, and founder of the Beautiful Social Research Collaborative, established in 2010. Through more than 160 partnerships in the United States and abroad, the collaborative brings students, educators, activists, and community partners together to create community-led media projects.
I teach in the Department of Communication, Film and Journalism at Saint Joseph’s University. My work with Indigenous communities, people currently and formerly incarcerated, and nonprofit partners explores how community-centered media and design can build capacity and advance justice. I have led invited workshops at Johns Hopkins University and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute, and I organize an annual community-engaged writing workshop in Northern New Mexico.
I am co-authoring the forthcoming book Regenerative Media with community partners. It develops an emerging approach to writing, design, and storytelling guided by a simple question: Does this work leave a community stronger than it found it? The book builds on ideas explored in Community Is the Way (2022) and “Community-Led Design” (2025).
Available as an Audiobook
Now available in audio, Community Is the Way is the first academic audiobook published by the University Press of Colorado. Narrated by Aimée, it expands access to ideas about community-engaged writing, design, and transformative change for listeners wherever they learn, teach, and collaborate.
Projects
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Beautiful Social Research Collaborative
A long-running collaborative with more than 160 partnerships creating writing, and media projects with communities.
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Community-Engaged Summer Workshop
A gathering for writers, educators, activists to explore how writing can support community-led change.
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Community-Led Design: Building Frameworks for Equity & Justice
A framework for building writing, design, and media projects with communities as true co-authors and collaborators.
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Rebel Wisdom: Creative Writing & Rituals for Women at Midlife
A collection of writing and shared practices for women in midlife, exploring friendship and collective wisdom through life’s turning points.
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Regenerative Media & Design: Toward Shared Futures
An emerging approach to writing, design, and storytelling that gives back, builds capacity, and supports community-led futures.
