Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Sustainable Development

GD124

Module Leaders:

Dr Elizabeth Chant & Dr Katie Reeves

Option - First year only for GSD single honours

Term 1

10 weeks

15 CATS

9 x 2 hour seminars

Available to students outside GSD on application and at convenor's discretion

Overview

Why do sustainable development challenges need interdisciplinary responses?

Why is my degree a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences?

This module will provide training for students to examine how interdisciplinary approaches can be used to engage with sustainability issues. By analysing case studies and methodological approaches from across the sciences and the humanities, students will develop discipline-specific knowledge while also nurturing interdisciplinary mindsets that will foster radical thinking.

This will be done across three key themes: (1) knowledge and methodologies, (2) communication of knowledge, and (3) resources and technologies. In dialogue with these topics, students will advance their own research into a sustainability issue and disseminate their findings to a non-specialist audience, helping them to practice the scholarly communication that is central to behavioural and systems change. Ultimately, this will engage students with the interdisciplinary culture of Global Sustainable Development (unpicking the ‘Bachelor of Arts and Sciences’) and provide training for a ‘beyond boundaries’ way of thinking that will inspire learning outside the limits of their degree.

Module aims

To interrogate issues of disciplinarity and positionality by studying arts/humanities and STEM topics in dialogue with one another
To understand and reflect upon how knowledge is constructed and how disciplinary siloes impact our learning
To use their emerging interdisciplinary knowledge to communicate sustainability issues to a non-specialist audience

Principal Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

Evaluate how knowledge is constructed and can be applied to respond to sustainability issues.
Identify disciplinary boundaries, including their own disciplinary positionality and use this understanding to begin developing interdisciplinary perspectives.
Forge connections between the sciences and the humanities to formulate creative responses to address global challenges.
Use peer-learning to develop effective communication to interdisciplinary audiences.
Explain the relevance of arts and sciences topics for tackling the three pillars of sustainable development.

Employability Skills

Through this module, you will develop a number of skills sought by employers. We have highlighted this to enable you to identify and reflect on skills you have acquired and apply them in your professional journey, for instance on application forms or at an interview.

Working with others: developing professional relationships with others to achieve individual and team outcomes in group activities, presentations, and other module tasks (all forms of employment).
Effective communication: developing ideas and insights which engage others, driving forward discussions with a focus on actionable and practical responses. This is a key focus of the module and relevant across sectors (marketing, business, civil sector, third sector)
Time management: through a requirement to plan independent study, assignments, and engage in other forms of time management in this module, students are able to build valuable workplace skills (all forms of employment)
Emotional intelligence: students develop a nuanced and practical understanding of interdisciplinary study, supporting future careers where approaches to challenges must encompass diverse perspectives and self awareness.

Indicative Syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The core teaching themes are as follows: (1) knowledge and methodologies, (2) communication of knowledge, and (3) resources and technologies. Topics will follow the above themes, with a list of likely topics noted below – this is purely to demonstrate the breadth and type of subjects that may be covered, and may be subject to change:

Introduction to interdisciplinary approaches and constructing interdisciplinary knowledge
History of disciplines and discipline positionality
Communication of sustainability across various disciplines
Sustainable scholarship and methodologies
The missing pillar of Global Sustainable Development
Resources in sustainable development: interrogating SDGs 1, 7, 8, and 10
Gender, science, and ecofeminism: interrogating SDG 5
Sustainable tourism
Technology in sustainable development: AI and AI ethics (SDG 12)

Assessment

Creative Project and Commentary (50%): Working in small groups, students will choose a sustainability issue and undertake a creative project. This is then marked individually via a supporting commentary about the project which includes (e.g.) visual examples from the project itself and relevant discussion of academic materials.

Interdisciplinary Reflection (30%): Students will complete a reflection task where they discuss the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and communication in sustainable development.

Class Preparation and Participation (20%): Students will be marked on their contribution to sessions. Consideration will be given to both oral contributions and written contributions which will be available for each topic.

Please note: Module availability and staffing may change year on year depending on availability and other operational factors. The School for Cross-faculty Studies makes no guarantee that any modules will be offered in a particular year, or that they will necessarily be taught in the above manner or by the staff listed on this page.