SUST 1000: INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIETY 1

Welcome to SUST 1000, the foundation class offered in Dalhousie’s College of Sustainability.

SUST 1000 offers a new way of learning via a new way of teaching-- professors from completely different backgrounds and disciplines co-teach the class. But that’s exactly what we need to move toward a sustainable society: different perspectives and different resources in a conversation with each other.

So in this class you'll see an architect, an historian, plant biologists and a marine biologist, along with guest lecturers, discuss everything from urbanization to poetry, from grain elevators to whale songs. What we’re trying to do is learn how to talk to one another, and learn how to work together. That, to us, is what interdisciplinary learning is all about: bringing your particular interests and talents to the table, and sharing these with others.

Because we’re all concerned with the same kinds of issues; we’re just trained to ask different kinds of questions and to look for different kinds of solutions. We’re passionate about our own areas of expertise, to be sure, but what we share – concern for improving the place of humanity on the planet – is in many ways more important.

This is what you’re going to be doing, too, with us and with each other. ESS is all about finding out who you are, where you want to go, and what you can do. You might like art or chemistry or politics – we need them all in order to develop sustainable practices, at Dalhousie and around the world.

In addition to the flow of issues in class, every Thursday evening we host a lecture or event that is open to the public. This way our journey of discovery can connect and be shared with the world outside the university.

Instructors: Steven Mannell and Claire Campbell

View the 2010 SUST1000 syllabus.