For my coursework in pursuit of my Graduate Certificate in Sustainability at University of Georgia I completed two seminar courses intended to broaden my understanding of cutting-edge work in sustainability. The first, Cross-Cultural Ecology, is among the most enlightening classes that I took during my two years of graduate school. The second, Interdisciplinary Sustainability Seminar, provided me with an opportunity to explore sustainability themes in my own life.

In cross-cultural ecology, we focused on the ways that western research agendas can impact local people and ecologies. This was a completely new world for me, and it led me to a huge shift in mindset around my own research and how I evaluate other research papers. We learned about colonial science, or “parachute science,” a conservation model where researchers from the developed world come to less-developed nations, do their research, and leave without any investment in human capacity or infrastructure (de Vos 2020). We also covered positionality (how differences in social position and power shape identities and access in society), and how academia can inherently undervalue traditional sources of knowledge on environmental conditions, harming the quality of research in the long-run. The differences in position between researchers and the communities where they conduct research can also detract from the ability of research results to be effectively communicated with and implemented in local communities. Discussions in this class led me to rework my own research project to include more community listening sessions where I let people in my study area tell me what they saw as issues in their community, rather than assuming that I knew the correct research question to address. After letting them guide my work, I also took community feedback on how to communicate results in a way that was useful for them. My classmates in Cross-Cultural Ecology supported me with ideas and resources throughout this process-and helped me to draft the following paragraph that was added to my proposal:

“Here I contextualize this study in existing academic literature. Doing so creates an inherent positionality where peer-reviewed studies may be valued at the expense of community lived experience and multi-generational knowledge. In a work focused on equity considerations I find it appropriate to push back on this position. Given that this work was motivated by citizens of Glynn County, GA who perceive a risk from climate change and contaminated sites, I argue that the value of the work comes both from its contribution to the literature and its response to the community.”

In the Interdisciplinary Sustainability Seminar, we were encouraged to apply the seven pillars of sustainability (systems thinking, strategic competency, integrative problem solving, intrapersonal competency, anticipatory competency, normative competency, and collaborative competency) to situations close to home in Athens, GA and our personal lives. I enjoyed learning about the sustainability initiates happening in my community- especially because I focus professionally on local problem-solving to global challenges. Some of the most memorable projects we covered were the UGArden and UGA Costa Rica Campus. Both of these particularly caught my attention because they focus on connecting people to the planet in a tangible way- through growing food. Both of these projects also have successfully reached thousands of students and demonstrated a self-supporting way of producing goods that does not harm the planet and benefits local communities (UGArden through Campus Kitchen and UGA Costa Rica through economic impact).

My favorite activity in the Interdisciplinary Sustainability Seminar was an assignment to apply sustainability in our own lives. I used this assignment as a structure for a personal project: planning an ultra-sustainable wedding. In planning my wedding I tried to consider every way to improve its triple bottom line. I particularly used systems thinking and integrative problem solving in researching the negative impact pathways of wedding celebrations and brainstorming ways to create integrative solutions that would create economic, environmental, and ethical benefits.