EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS
The Villanova Strategic Initiative for Climate, Justice and Sustainability (SICJS) offers workshops, speaker series, conferences and other events designed to further awareness and understanding and to foster sustainability research and teaching across the university.
SPEAKER SERIES
Each session of the Strategic Initiative for Climate, Justice and Sustainability 2024-2025 Speaker Series will be held from 12 to 1 p.m. in the Falvey Liberary Speakers Corner. All events are ACS approved and are free and open to the public.
Renewable Energy and Regulatory Rents
Wednesday, November 6
Todd Aagaard, JD
Professor of Law
Your AI Isn’t Free: The Environmental Impact of Bits, Bytes and Cooling in Today’s Data Centers
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Alfonso Ortega, PhD
James R. Birle Professor of Energy Technology in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
What Makes a Green Advertisement Effective? How Source, Message, and Consumer Characteristics Influence Ad Resonance
Wednesday, February 2, 2025
Tyler Milfeld, PhD
The Michelle and Sean Traynor '91 Assistant Professor, Marketing & Business Law
Epidemic of Prematurity: Affects That Last a Lifetime or More
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Michelle Kelly, PhD, CRNP, CNE, FAANP, FAAN
Associate Professor, M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing
Thinking Trash in Latin American Art
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Agnese Codebò, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Spanish
WORKSHOPS
2024 Curriculum Workshop
On May 20-21, 2024, eight non-Engineering faculty members joined eight Engineering faculty members for an interdisciplinary workshop focusing on sustainability curriculum development. SICJS partnered with the College of Engineering to plan and implement the two-day workshop. Workshop content focused on understanding the concept of the Anthropocene, learning about the Engineering for One Planet (EOP) sustainability model, and exploring pedagogical applications. The Engineering cohort’s workshop continued May 22-24 with a focus on the Engineering-specific components of the EOP model.
The workshop included content delivery, interactive sessions, collaborative workshopping of course syllabi and student learning outcomes, and individual time working on course revision. Steve Goldsmith, the 2023-24 SICJS Faculty Fellow, helped plan and implement the workshop and delivered a session on his community-based sustainability work. Al Motel set up recycling and composting bins and spoke with participants about what Villanova recycles and composts as part of their sustainable operations. The next Curriculum Workshop will take place in May 2025.
SICJS 2022 Research Workshop
As researchers confront the impacts of climate change, we see an increased need to work across disciplines and fields. Yet our disciplines and positions do not often prepare us to establish such projects, nor do they educate us on how to produce interdisciplinary work. During this workshop, we discussed seed-funding opportunities, the needs of neighboring communities, tools and resources for successful projects, the varied research expectations of different disciplines, and current and proposed Villanova research projects.
Our overall goal was to foster collaboration and explore opportunities to collaborate on future projects in climate, justice, and sustainability. The focus of the workshop was on the needs of Villanova and its surrounding community. Through this workshop, SICJS established interdepartmental and community partnerships, identified individual and research groups in the realm of climate, justice, and/sustainability, and fostered new research and funding prospects.
2021 Curriculum Workshop
The Sustainability Leadership Council hosted a three-day workshop May 17-19, 2021, that focused on incorporating sustainability into a new or existing course. Each faculty participant revised or newly created a syllabus to incorporate sustainability learning. The workshop focused on sustainability and experiential education and featured presentations by faculty and community leaders. The plan for a Villanova Institute for Climate, Justice, and Sustainability was introduced at the workshop.
The following community organizations participated: The Philadelphia Area Environmental Justice Curriculum Hub, National Wildlife Federation, Centro de Cultura Arte Trabajo y Educacion and The Woodlands. Participants developed teaching strategies, learned about experiential education and considered how their disciplinary expertise could contribute to sustainability education.
