Environmental Justice Minor Update

In Fall 2017, a group of students, faculty, and staff met regularly to lay the groundwork for a new academic program in environmental justice. Our group built on the great work of previous WWU students, including Michelle Dannehy.  Over the last year and a half, we created a vision and approach for the minor, and formally proposed the curriculum as a new academic program at WWU. The proposal has been approved by the Department of Environmental Studies, and by Huxley College of the Environment.  If these final approvals go smoothly, we will begin accepting students into the minor this Fall 2019. Please check out the curriculum here.

 

Clockwise from top left: Melanie del Rosario (WWU graduate student), Kate Darby (WWU faculty), Dario Castellon (WWU undergraduate student), Lena Hemmer (WWU undergraduate student) and Renee Holt (WWU graduate student) at the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences conference in Washington, DC (June 2018). Lena and Renee presented on the student-led efforts to develop the Environmental Justice Minor at WWU.

While developing the minor curriculum, we also recognized the need for greater community-building and learning outside of the classroom. To support those goals, a team of students (Alyssa Webster, Peter Cung, Maddy Jones, Lee Elder, and Rosa Rice-Pelepko) submitted a grant to the WWU Sustainability, Equity and Justice Fund requesting support for a two year event series and a student employee to organize events and maintain this website. They were awarded a $38,720 grant for EJ co-curricular efforts. This has allowed us to hire Jessica Ibes to manage this website and organize events. This fall, we kicked off the event series with a visit from Carolyn Finney, author of Black Faces, White Spaces.

 

Please share any thoughts or feedback on the minor or co-curricular efforts by commenting on this post, or by emailing Kate.

 

Thank you to everyone who has contributed and continues to contribute to this exciting work!