2018 Conference

Full Presentation Panel

What if sustainability was included on every syllabus and was a topic of discussion in every classroom on campus? What if disciplines, departments, and divisions worked together to address sustainability in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community? While this may not yet be a reality, aspirations such as these are not unreasonable largely due to the inclusive nature of sustainability. Indeed, sustainability is a phenomenon that is applicable to almost every discipline, can be integrated into almost any classroom, and offers opportunities for creative collaboration across multiple campus worlds. However, too often sustainability is limited in concept and practice to the natural sciences and environmental studies. This panel will feature two doctoral students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who have assisted in instructing an undergraduate course that utilizes the campus as a living laboratory for sustainability education. This pedagogical experience and related research has taught each panelist lessons about how sustainability can be operationalized both in order to demonstrate synergies between sustainability and traditionally unrelated disciplines as well as to bridge departmental silos for sustainability research, teaching, and learning. We hope that our presentations can generate ideas and begin larger conversations concerning how those of us in the environmental studies and sciences can harness the inclusivity of sustainability to advance its principles and mission throughout our campus communities.