Global Sustainable Development News

Assistant Professor Marco J Haenssgen has been awarded two new grants to support his interdisciplinary public engagement and research activities. The Humanities Research Fund awarded Dr Haenssgen £1920 for an upcoming photo exhibition. “Tales of Treatment” will not only narrate stories of traditional healing as a dying craft among ethnic minority groups in northern Thailand; it also points spectators to subtle contradictions and tensions in global health policy and research. Warwick’s Global Research Priority on International Development awarded Dr Haenssgen a further £1,500 to support the development of an interdisciplinary research project. Under the working title “What if hardship causes drug resistance?,” Dr Haenssgen and 15 colleagues from disciplines as diverse as politics, tropical medicine, and network science will explore how contextual factors like precarity drive people into problematic health behaviours that could contribute to antimicrobial resistance. The researchers hope that the project can spark unconventional and innovative new approaches to health policy that target structural drivers rather than individuals when trying to change population behaviours.

Our students continue their successful Social Enterprise activities through Warwick Enactus, this time by hosting Food Intercept -- a charity food sale hosted in the School for Cross-Faculty Studies on Mondays 12:00-15:00 in R3.35. More detail on the School's Events page

The Global Sustainable Development community was shocked and appalled at the abhorrent messages that came out last year, and as a department we wanted to engage meaningfully with the anger and concern expressed by so many staff and students over the past few weeks. We were particularly mindful that these conversations take a toll on all community-members, but especially on the survivors of harassment and assault. Our first commitment was to develop a response that acknowledged and supported the pain of these community-members.

Prof. Cathia Jenainati—in her capacity as Head of School—called a full meeting of staff and students on Monday, 4 February to discuss what the community response should be. We had a productive meeting and really appreciate the insightful comments made by our students.

On the suggestion of our school’s students to craft a considered process, over the next week we will provide an anonymous online portal for all members of our community to share their thoughts in order to help us make a meaningful public statement and propose ideas for longer term institutional reflection and development. We will enact any department-level changes agreed with the student body, and we will bring any wider suggestions or needs to the University. Of course, we also want to look after our students here and now: please do get in touch with your personal tutor if there’s any support you might need.

Looking ahead, we want to play a central role in reshaping the regulations, policies, and culture of our institution. As the Head of Council has indicated, there will be a full review of University disciplinary procedure and we want our students to speak loudly and clearly as part of that process. But change comes through organization, and we want to have clear goals around which we can take collective action.

The behavior expressed in those group chats is antithetical to the values we hold as a department and will not—ever—be permitted. Not as a joke, not as “banter”, not at all. We look forward to working together to making sure that our values are not compromised by process or convenience.

[Message sent on behalf of the staff and students of the Global Sustainable Development Division of the School for Cross-faculty Studies]

At the beginning of January, three first year GSD students, Kasia Jaworska, Luke Netherclift and Lucy Izquierdo, along with Jacob Corry (Accounting and Finance) took part in the Enactus Warwick's Innovation Hub Challenge, under the name Team Recharge.

Following a generous invitation, Dr. Alastair Smith, delivered a talk for the Stratford-Upon-Avon Rotary Club on Monday 28^th: Food security in the Context of Climate Change. Linking global to local issues, Dr Smith outlined a range of practical opportunities for members to contribute towards positive change: including supporting the appropriate dissemination of technologies in the developing world and taking concrete steps to reduce the amount of meat we consume in wealthier economies.

The following summary of the talk was written for the Stratford Herald, by club member David Haugh, BEM, BA.

Dr Marta Guerriero, Senior Teaching Fellow and Deputy Head of School, Global Sustainable Development, was asked to comment on the issues raised in a recent Oxfam report on global inequality.

You may find Marta's comment on the Warwick News&Event website - link.

Windrush Strikes Back: Decolonising Global Warwickshire (WSB) is a community-engaged history project facilitated by the Global Warwickshire Collective (GWC), which includes Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins of Global Sustainable Development.

The project is focused on uncovering the hidden histories written by British African Caribbean peoples in historic Warwickshire, including Coventry, Birmingham and the surrounding areas. Over the course of six months, the GWC will mentor and train descendants of the Windrush generations, as "Decolonial Detectives."

Through training and engagement, the intention of this project is to inspire community members to take more active ownership of and involvement in the production of our histories, and to challenge the exclusivity of historical scholarship in Britain. Together we will work towards decolonising the entangled "glocal" histories of Shakespeare's county, Warwickshire.

https://windrushstrikesback.com/

The Universitas Indonesia (UI) GreenMetric World University Rankings 2018 have placed Warwick in the world’s top universities for environmental sustainability.

A truly excellent result is the ranking in the 'education and research' indicator, where Warwick was placed 15th in the world and 5th in the United Kingdom.

You are all invited to the first seminar of the new term!

How do we campaign as activists and NGOs when we know that time is running out to tackle climate change? What role do NGOs play in the wider environmental movement and how do we maintain hope in changing times? How do we engage people and what does a movement look like? Hannah Martin will be speaking and facilitating a discussion based on her experience of organising at the grass-roots level and campaigning for Greenpeace on issues like fracking and wider energy issues including the Canadian tar sands and deforestation.