Vanessa Levesque
University of New Hampshire Thad Miller Arizona State University
Vanessa Levesque and Thad Miller headlined SCC’s first webinar focusing on sustainability science. Thad led off with a presentation introducing how he and other leaders in the field conceptualize sustainability science, as he details in his book Reconstructing Sustainability Science. Attendees learned about the origins of sustainability science, how the space has evolved, and the extent to which it can distinguished from other perspectives on sustainability.
Vanessa then presented a case study of how some guiding concepts of sustainability science have informed a mid-level Sustainability Methods class at UNH. She talked about which guiding concepts she chose to focus on, how she uses those concepts to structure the content of the course, her struggles in finding undergraduate-level resources focused on those topics, and how she is having her students create a Sustainability Methods Reader as part of an open pedagogy approach to develop the resources needed to teach these topics.
Vanessa Levesque is the Assistant Director and Lecturer for the Sustainability Dual Major at University of New Hampshire-Durham. Dr. Levesque received her PhD in Ecology and Environmental Studies from the University of Maine as a research fellow with the Sustainability Solutions Initiative. Her teaching and research integrates knowledge and methods from multiple disciplines, with a particular interest in sustainability science and collaborative governance. Dr. Levesque holds an MS in Natural Resources Planning from the University of Vermont and a BA in Ecology and Evolution from Dartmouth College.
Thad Miller is an assistant professor at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and The Polytechnic School at Arizona State University. His research explores how sustainability is interpreted, contested, materialized and settled in science and technology policy and infrastructure design. He is on the Executive Management Team for the National Science Foundation-funded Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network, and co-PI of the NSF-funded STIR Cities project. His recent book, Reconstructing Sustainability Science: Knowledge and Action for a Sustainable Future, part of the Earthscan Routledge Science in Society Series, examines how scientists can navigate epistemic and normative tensions to link knowledge to social action.
Video recording for October 23 webinar available here: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23rDb0jCqts&feature=youtu.be>
