January 29, 2025

Weekly Sustainability Seminars Cover Local, National, and Global Topics

Gordon Natural AreaEvery Wednesday at 12 p.m., WCU’s Office of Sustainability (OoS) offers a look at how WCU scholars, students, and staff explore and apply principles of environmental, social, and economic sustainability in their research and practice. At 50 minutes each, these Sustainability Research and Practice Seminars introduce an array of topics related to sustainability in easily digestible segments. Free and open to both campus and community, they are presented via Zoom or in person in Sykes Student Union 209.

The complete schedule is below. Unless otherwise indicated, speakers are WCU staff and faculty members. NOTE: There will not be a seminar during spring break week, 3/10/25 and the April 2 seminar will take place in SECC 107.

Programs are recorded and archived in the Francis Harvey Green Library’s Digital Commons site. The series is co-sponsored by the Office of Sustainability along with the Office for Research and Sponsored Programs and the Sustainability Council’s Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee.

For more information and the Zoom link, visit wcupa.edu/sustainability or write to sustainability@wcupa.edu.

February 5

Dr. Megan Heckert (Geography & Planning), Dr. Randall Cream (English), and Dr. Tina Rosan (Temple University, Geography, Environment and Urban Studies): Using Walk Audits and Storytelling to Understand Neighborhood Environmental Problems

February 12

Dr. Emily Southerton (Learning Sciences), and Kate Southerton-Castillo ’26 (student, Transformative Education and Social Change): Getting “out in the woods” with students: Intergenerational work centering learners as creators of sustainable futures

February 19

Dr. Abbie Ganas (Chemistry): Sustainable Synthesis of Cellulose-Derived Carbon Materials

February 26

Dr. Lorenzo Cena (Public Health Sciences), Daniel Engelbrecht, and Jess Hampton: Why do mushroom farms in PA smell so bad?

March 5

Dr. Manu Ramalho (Biology): Fostering and understanding diversity, within the ant microbiome and our research group

March 19

Dr. Nica Davidov (Monmouth University, Anthropology): Nature Is Good to Think With: How Biomimicry Creates a “Sustainabling” Resource

March 26

Dr. Jason Vanfosson (English): “For All Its Problems, It’s Mine”: Writing and Sustaining Queer Appalachian Stories in Youth Literature

April 2 in SECC 107

Dr. Nur Ritter (steward of the Gordon Natural Area): Nobody Told Me There’d Be Otters! Species, Patterns, and Insights from 2+ Years of Wildlife Camera Monitoring in the Gordon Natural Area

April 9

Dr. Jason Wozniak (Educational Foundations & Policy Studies): On Environmental Debts, and Debt Abolition to Fight the Climate Crisis

April 16

Nick Ventrola (Resident District Manager, Aramark): Pursuing Sustainability in Campus Dining Services

April 23

Dr. Linda Stevenson (Political Science): Teaching and Learning Sustainability: An Interdisciplinary Global Studies Approach

April 30

Dr. Karin Volkwein-Caplan (Kinesiology): Healthy Aging in a Sustainable Manner 

 

Visit the WCU Office of Sustainability.

 

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