The inaugural cohort of the Sustainability Education Fellows represent seven faculties and 11 departments and schools across McGill's two campuses.
Juan Camilio Serpa
Associate Professor, Desautels Faculty of Management
Student Fellow: Meriem Mehri (Master’s Student, Desautels Faculty of Management)
Juan Camilo Serpa is a William Dawson Scholar and associate professor in data analytics at the Desautels Faculty of Management. Prof. Serpa designed the Costa Rica Study Trip: Experiential Community Projects in Sustainability + AI. Beginning in May 2024, this interdisciplinary experiential-learning course will partner students with an NGO to draw on that organization’s knowledge in sustainability or analytics. During these projects, students will implement AI and analytical tools to, for example, study the health of bee colonies, track microplastics in the ocean, help micro-farming initiatives, or develop compost optimization. [Promo video]
Liliana Araujo
Assistant Professor, Schulich School of Music
Student Fellow: Kyle Zavitz (Postdoctoral Student, Schulich School of Music)
Liliana S. Araújo is designing a new course on applied research in Music (MUGT 350) for a new minor in Applied Performance Sciences. Her goal is to help students develop strong sustainability competencies, through a solutions-oriented approach to understanding and conducting research in context, with and for the users of the research to respond to real-world problems, and to develop a more purposeful and sustainable approach to research in performance sciences.
Michael Creamer
Faculty Lecturer, Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, Faculty of Education
Student Fellow: Daniel Cursio (PhD Student, Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, Faculty of Education)
Michael Creamer is redesigning a course offered to pre-service Physical and Health educators (EDKP 237-Outdoor Education) to help them become environmentally conscious teachers who can empower future students to become active contributors to a more sustainably adept future. The redesign will help students design, plan, and facilitate outdoor-oriented experiences in their future classrooms.
Julie Major
Senior Faculty Lecturer, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Student Fellow: Jacee Forsythe (Master’s Student, Faculty of Education)
Julie has been teaching field courses on tropical agriculture for over 10 years (AGRI 325, AGRI 550). It’s quite easy, when on a farm speaking to it’s manager, to highlight and understand issues related to a farm’s sustainability. However, crafting assessments which evaluate students’ understanding of sustainability has been a challenge. Our work focuses on developing new assessments to cover knowledge gained on the three pillars of sustainability, while in the field.
Stephanie Loeb
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
Student Fellow: Shanmugavalli (Harini) Narayanan (PhD Student, Faculty of Education)
Stephanie Loeb is designing a new course on solar driven environmental processes and technologies, presented in Winter 2024 as a selected topics course (CIVE 546). This course will present an overview of solar driven environmental transformation and decay processes, as well as applications of solar energy harnessing materials in sustainable green energy generation and environmental remediation including solar cells, photocatalysts, solar-thermal power generation, and solar water treatment.
Cristina Carnemolla
Assistant Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Faculty of Arts
Student Fellow: Daniel Esteban Salas Hoyos (PhD Student, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Faculty of Arts)
Cristina Carnemolla is designing a new course on Hispanic Gender and Textualities ( HISP 358 & HISP 690) that will use 19th- and 20th-century cookbooks, magazines, and conduct manuals for women (books that prescribe how women should behave in society) to talk about sustainability issues nowadays. A close reading of these texts will facilitate a discussion of our current relationship with food and fast fashion, as well as elicit a reflection on ways to reduce our environmental footprint.
Daniele Malomo
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
Student Fellow: Anna Wang (PhD Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering)
Daniele Malomo seeks to implement sustainability design principles into CIVE 463, Design of Concrete Structures. His main goal is to let students understand that engineers can and should take their design choices through the lens of sustainability at all levels, from material to formwork selection. Prof. Malomo will also introduce simple design optimization concepts for reducing material waste while reaching adequate structural performance, and applicable to beam, column and slab design.
Ipek Tureli
Associate Professor, The Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering
Student Fellow: Eyup Ozkan (PhD Student, The Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering)
Ipek Tureli is designing a service learning course in which students will go into K-6 classrooms to teach children about climate action through architectural design. The objective is to help students become better architecture communicators and deepen their learning experience by teaching the topics to a younger generation. The course proposal builds on her award winning, SSHRC-funded research-creation project Architecture Playshop.
Sabine Dhir
Senior Faculty Lecturer, Desautels Faculty of Management
Student Fellow: Alexandra (Lexi) Kinman (Master’s Student, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science)
Sabine Dhir is designing the course MSUS 434: Sustainability Around the World, which will be offered at the Desautels Faculty of Management. Her objective is to offer management students an opportunity to examine sustainability across an international landscape, to critically compare efforts in different countries, and to understand why sustainability efforts succeed and fail in a variety of political, ecological, and social climates. The course will also allow students to broaden their definition of sustainability through a management lens as they explore examples of culturally relevant ways of living and being that are harmonious with the environment and the land.
Don Patrick Martin
Assistant Professor, Schulich School of Music
Student Fellow: Shiqing Gong (PhD Student, Faculty of Education)
Don Patrick Martin is designing a course titled Indigenous Music in Cosmology (MUHL 475). He is interested in the intersection between social sustainability and Indigenous music and pedagogies. This course design is part of a bigger, exciting project to develop a Minor in Indigenous Music at the Schulich School of Music, in which artistic citizenship within Indigenous music will be a key theme.
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Isabelle Cosette
Associate Professor, Schulich School of Music
Student Fellow: Mathieu Boucher (Postdoctoral Student, Schulich School of Music)
Associate professor at the Schulich School of Music, Isabelle Cossette's research and teaching focus on evidence-based pedagogies associated to the performer-instrument interaction, its biomechanical and expressive aspects, and the health benefits and challenges of music-making. In her teaching, she seeks to link personal sustainability with social and environmental sustainability at the micro- and macro levels. By applying these principles and learning self-regulation skills into their practice and daily habits, students will become lifelong learners equipped with skills fostering sustainable and healthy careers.
