Last modified: Friday, February 22, 2013
IU Bloomington offices announce fellowships for sustainability course development
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 22, 2013
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Office of Sustainability and the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington are seeking fellowship program proposals supporting faculty interested in developing courses that engage IU students with sustainability principles.
"These fellowships are an important part of wider efforts to create a community of faculty at IU who teach or want to develop courses pertaining to sustainability. We want to highlight and support the impressive interdisciplinary range of sustainability course offerings available on our campus," said Lisa Sideris, associate professor of religious studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. Sideris was a 2011-12 recipient of the award and is academic initiatives co-chair at the Office of Sustainability.
Bill Brown, IU Bloomington director of sustainability, examines an item from a sustainable product design course. The course was created with help from a 2012 Sustainability Course Development Fellowship.
Now in its fifth year, the Sustainability Course Development Fellowship awards up to $8,000 to faculty interested in cultivating a sustainability component within their field. Preference will be given to courses that incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainability. The fellowship supports the development of courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as service-learning courses.
The idea for an instructional sustainability initiative was first recommended by the Indiana University Task Force on Campus Sustainability in 2008. Since then, the program has supported 12 new initiatives from a variety of schools and departments. Courses emerging from the fellowship program have included "Sustainability Law & Policy," "Exploring the Challenges of Sustainability: Ecology & Society" and "Pleasure, Pain and Peak Oil."
"These sustainability initiatives have galvanized faculty interest in a set of problems that are global in their reach but local in their solutions," said Tom Gieryn, IU vice provost for faculty and academic affairs.
Awards will be announced at the end of the spring semester. Recipients will be asked to devote the equivalent of eight weeks full time to developing their project during the summer. The deadline for submitting all materials is March 22.
