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| 4/27/2009 10:25:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Southwestern receives environmental grants
GEORGETOWN - Southwestern University's Environmental Studies Program has received a major boost thanks to $1.3 million in funding from three recent grants.
A $750,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will enable the university to hire a new tenure-track faculty member in environmental geography, add environmental content to courses across the curriculum and establish a new Center for Social and Environmental Justice.
Overall, the grant is designed to expand the global emphasis of Southwestern's Environmental Studies Program. For example, a portion of the funds will be used to develop a new course titled "Introduction to Cultural Studies" in collaboration with the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
"Unless we understand the cultures that are engaging in environmentally destructive practices, we can't begin to change the way we live," said Laura Hobgood-Oster, chair of the Environmental Studies Program.
To go along with the grant, Southwestern created a new Mellon Environmental Fellows program. Five students a year will be offered a $5,000 fellowship to participate in a study abroad program during their junior year that has an emphasis on environmental issues. During their senior year, fellows will be expected to share what they have learned from their study abroad.
The Mellon Environmental Fellows also will provide key student leadership to the new Center for Social and Environmental Justice, which will facilitate environmental research projects on campus and in the community. A major goal of the center will be to help students integrate their study abroad experiences into local projects. For example, Hobgood-Oster said, a student who studies green building abroad might return to Georgetown and become involved with local green building. Southwestern's Environmental Studies Program was started in the 1999-2000 academic year. It currently has 19 majors and six minors.
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