12 Faculty Receive Sustainability Curriculum Fellowship
A diverse group of faculty have been named recipients of a 2019-2020 Sustainability Curriculum Fellowship, an interdisciplinary program that includes a $1,000 professional development grant and monthly brainstorming sessions to learn about best practices.
Supported by the Chancellor’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, School of Earth and Sustainability (SES), Institute for Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development and UMass Amherst Libraries, the fellowship is designed to help UMass faculty cultivate teaching excellence in sustainability.
The 2019-2020 recipients are:
Steve Acquah, Chemistry/Digital Media Lab: His award will support students in his Makerspace Leadership and Outreach class in creating prototypes for sustainability projects.
Isla Castañeda, Geosciences/School of Earth and Sustainability: For her Earth and Oceanography courses, Castañeda will develop engaging lab and other hands-on activities specifically focused on sustainability.
Bill Clement, Geosciences/School of Earth and Sustainability: In his Physical Geology course, Clement will incorporate sustainability concepts into the curriculum to help students better appreciate the role of science in their daily life.
Euripedes DeOliveira, Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning/School of Earth and Sustainability: DeOliveira will enhance the discussion of sustainability in the Dynamics of Human Habitation course she teaches online.
Lena Fletcher, Environmental Conservation/School of Earth and Sustainability: Fletcher will attend workshops and conferences to continue evolving the content of her Sustainable Living class to help students explore and process the emotional sphere of environmental degradation.
Rachel Green, Comparative Literature: Among other objectives, Green would like to brainstorm new learning activities to make discussions in her Good and Evil literature class much more relevant in the Anthropocene.
Noy Holland, English: As part of her Art in the Anthropocene MFA course, Holland will create a collaborate event open to the public that encourages graduate students to explore the role of art in addressing climate change and to move toward active civic engagement.
Maeve Howett, Nursing: In a new course on Toxicants, Climate Change and Health, Howett will teach junior and senior nursing students about how environments influence health outcomes and how nurses can make sustainability part of their professional ethics.
Ezra Markowitz, Environmental Conservation/School of Earth and Sustainability: Taking over as faculty sponsor for the student-driven Eco-Reps course, Markowitz plans to enhance the experiential class by developing well-designed, sustainability-oriented civic engagement opportunities and providing a platform for involving students in robust field research related to environmental decision-making.
Fadia Nordtveit, Business Communication Program, Isenberg School of Management: In the Management Communications required course for all Isenberg students, Nordtveit will generate sustainability-themed content, assignments and projects for business-minded students and build networks on campus for cross-collaboration in sustainability projects.
Kara Peterman, Civil and Environmental Engineering: Peterman will attend a green building expo or visit an international green building center for inspiration and perspective as she aims to make sustainability a fundamental design constraint in a new course to be offered in the spring, Unified Structural Design.
Eldra-Dominique Walker, Architecture: For the foundational History and Theory of Historic Preservation course, Walker will develop a sustainability component, including theoretical inquiries and a site visit for students to observe and investigate some completed sustainability projects.