Dr. Karen Lordi-Kirkham, Theatre and Dance
Sustainability & Study Abroad, Norwich England
I was eager to participate in the workshop in my capacity as the upcoming program abroad program director in Norwich, England starting Fall of 2019. I had hoped to advance sustainable learning in the courses I would be creating for the students and provide leadership and a shared vision in creating a connected global community.
The workshop provided a great background on the broader definitions of sustainability and how to use these as a framing device for a course no matter what the content. I was able to find a structure to create a course in London that will use the core principles as a scaffold. Using “Goal 11” to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, students will learn about London then and now from these viewpoints. This sustainability investigation will entail taking each topic- such as resilient- and break that into sub-topics such as tourism, economics, spirituality. Students would then have readings, visit sites, guest lectures etc. that would expand on those topics from the core perspective of creating a sustainable city in the past and present. I hope this course will be able to get a SINV designation and begin to put sustainability in both the curriculum and consciousness of students studying abroad.