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What is COFFA

Mission
COFFA is an international academic consortium for institutions and programs that offer education in forensic anthropology for research and practice. Our mission is to support the development and success of fundamental education and training for students, faculty, and practitioners of forensic anthropology.

  • Tenure and Promotion Recommendations for Programming in Forensic Anthropology

COFFA will adopt recommendations of the scholarship of engagement as defined in the Report of the Scholarship of Engagement Task Force at North Carolina State University (http://www.ncsu.edu/extension/news/engagement.php).

Definition. The scholarship of engagement is the collaborative generation, refinement, and exchange of mutually beneficial and societally relevant knowledge that is communicated to and validated by peers in academe and the community.

Purpose. The scholarship of engagement aims to develop ethical and practical solutions to social, health, economic, and/or environmental issues. This scholarship may involve higher education institutions and communities on and off campus in partnerships that hold common goals and share expertise and resources.

Broadening Concept of Scholarship. The scholarship of engagement challenges narrow definitions of academic scholarship that solely emphasize the products of discipline-based research without identifying how the process of engaging in scholarship in itself creates an intellectual environment stimulating knowledge discovery, integration, application, and teaching. In 1996, Boyer proposed that the scholarship of engagement describes the mission of institutions of higher education. In other words, universities are to engage public groups in specifying areas for study, action, and teaching and assessing together the impact of collaborative work (from Executive Summary, Report of the Scholarship of Engagement Task Force at North Carolina State University 2009) .

Best Practices and Lessons Learned
Develop documents that provide models and suggestions for undergraduate and graduate level education in forensic anthropology. These documents will provide COFFA members opportunities to share and exchange resources.

  • Guidelines for Training Practicing Forensic Anthropologists

Develop curriculum and administrative guidelines for degree-granting graduate training programs for practicing forensic anthropologists.