Available Classes

This course explores the contemporary influences of feminist theories upon psychology and clinical practice. Emphasized will be postmodern feminist writings in the areas of feminist psychoanalysis, feminist epistemologies, and feminist practice. Students interested in exploring one approach to diversity conceptualization are encouraged to participate.

Restrictions: Permission of the instructor. Cont. Ed. will seek permission for student.

Instructor: Susan Hawes, PhD

Section A: Online Saturday & Sunday, October 16 & 17 (9:00 am – 5:00 pm)

Delivery: Online, subject to change

This workshop considers the population of current and former sailors, marines, soldiers, and airmen to be a special population with a unique culture that merits understanding in order to competently care for these individuals. We will focus on understanding this culture and how this understanding can inform our work with military personnel with trauma-related mental health issues such as PTSD and military sexual trauma. The problem of suicidality among this population will be discussed. In addition, special emphasis will be on female sailors, marines, soldiers, and airmen and the mental health challenges they face. Therapies addressed in this workshop will include Cognitive Processing Therapy. The concept of Moral Injury will also be explored.

Restrictions: Permission of the instructor. Cont. Ed. will seek permission for student.

Instructor: Brian Zuzelo, PsyD

Section A: Online Saturday & Sunday, November 6 & 7 (9:00 am – 5:00 pm)

Delivery: Classroom

How can digital and social media be used to educate, advocate, bridge social divides, and change environmental policies and behaviors? How are such technologies suitable to these purposes? How can we be inclusive in our use of online communication when the majority of the world’s population has limited or no access to computers? What are appropriate technologies for various instructional needs in an era of globalization? This course covers current issues in educational technology and practical applications of 21st century technological skills essential for environmental leaders and educators in our increasingly digital age. Participants will explore innovative approaches to the use of technology in Environmental Education and Environmental Communication. Students will become familiar with strategies to use technology effectively in various environmental studies contexts.

This course will enable participants to:

• Communicate effectively via video and other electronic presentations
• Know what technologies are appropriate for particular situations
• Be able to analyze which communication tactics work best with different audiences
• Have an appreciation for the challenges in reaching those groups and individuals who don’t have access to 21st century digital technology and how best to mitigate those challenges
• Understand how to develop an environmental communications plan for an organization or group

Section A:  Meaghan Guckian

Times: Saturday & Sunday, September 18^th & 19^th, 8:00am – 1:00pm plus additional 2hr bi-weekly sessions to be determined with the class

Credits: 2

This course examines the diversity of plant communities found in central New England with special attention to the impact of topography, substrate, and disturbance regimes on community composition and structure as a means to understand ecological community dynamics in any part of the world.  As a largely field-based course, both qualitative and quantitative means will be used to describe community composition and structure, as well as the reasons for community placement.  Ecocindicator species will be used to delineate specific topographic and edaphic sites, while evidence of various disturbances will be used to interpret successional patterns as a means for “reading the landscape.”  The course will have a strong grounding in concepts related to community ecology including dominance, diversity, niche structuring, and succession.  Skills in plant community sampling, soil interpretation, and plant identification will also be developed.  A number of outstanding representatives of community types in the central Connecticut River watershed will be visited.

Sections A & B:  Jeff Littleton

Section C:  Rachel Thiet

Time:    Section A:  Thursdays, September 2 – December 16, 8:00 – 11:00 am

Section B: Thursdays, September 2 – December 16, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Section C:  Fridays, September 3 – December 17, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Credits: 3

Environmental change agents face a daunting task—and opportunity–to address climate change in ways that foster dialogue and motivate positive action in our communities and personal lives. This task is particularly daunting in light of the scientific complexity combined with socio-political and cultural contextual issues. Climate change education and communication strategies have come a long way in the past decade though dissonance and misrepresentations abound while climate impacts unfold across the globe. This course is

relevant to anyone working in climate change arenas, including educators, scientists, policymakers, advocates, citizens and community members. Course content explores theory and practice of climate change education and communication in various contexts. We will investigate different aspects of communicating climate change, including psychological and social perceptions, barriers to action, and questions of justice. We will highlight and apply effective programming and communication strategies to engage learners across the lifespan in different contexts (nonformal settings, communities, non- profits, classrooms, mass media, etc.). We will also explore questions like: how do we address climate grief among youth and adults? How can we best leverage research in practice to address immediate risks and mitigation yet also move toward long-term adaptation and transformation? How do we foster hope, resilience and coping strategies amid climate impacts? Interactive course design along with guest speakers, case studies and student projects explore the challenges, opportunities, skills and motivations necessary to be effective leaders, educators and communicators of climate change and

positive actions at multiple scales—personal, communal, and ecological.

Section A:  Meaghan Guckian

Times: Fridays  September 3 – December 17;  8:00am – 11:00pm

This course employs a systems approach to understanding earth’s physical and biological environment by examining the large-scale components and processes of the earth system.  Understanding the interaction of these elements and their natural variability in space and time is critical for assessing the rates, drivers, and consequences of environmental change.  Content will emphasize climate change dynamics, biogeochemical cycles, and land use patterns and their feedback relationships with the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, pedosphere and biosphere.

Section A: Jim Jordan

Section B: Jim Jordan

Times:   Section A: Fridays, September 3 – December 17, 8:00 – 11:00 am

Section B:  Fridays, September 3 – December 17, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Credits: 3

All environmental professionals, from conservation biologists to environmental educators, from climate adaptation professionals to resource managers, need to understand the essentials of effective advocacy. Advocacy has been core to effective environmental outcomes for generations. We will learn through advocacy-based case studies, debates about the ethical role of advocacy relative to one’s career, and exploration of one’s personal relationship to advocacy. Our inquiry into the essentials of advocacy will draw from international scholarship on the nature and efficacy of advocacy. We will also consider how a range of actors, including scientists, environmental professionals, educators, and citizen’s, engage in effective advocacy for the promotion of positive environmental behavior, resilience, social justice, and sustainability outcomes. We will explore possible scenarios for advocacy in course participants’ own professional and civic engagement and in the organizations, communities, professional and personal networks, and polities with which they engage.

Section A: Abigail Abrash Walton

Times: Saturdays, 8:00am – 12:00pm; Sundays 1:00pm – 5:00pm  Sept 11-12, Oct 9-10, Nov 13-14, Dec 4-5

Credits: 3

Restricted to ES Environmental Education students; others with permission of instructor.

This course will provide a broad overview of the Environmental Education movement by constructing a working definition of its goals and the various manifestations of those goals within local, regional, state, national and international organizations.  We will explore the personal values that drive people to choose environmental education as a profession and look at the implications of that choice on lifestyle, civic participation, relationships and work-life.  Students will predict possible future scenarios for environmental educators and their role in the organizations that support their efforts.

Section A: Libby McCann

Times: Thursdays, September 2 – December 16, 8:00am – 11:00 am.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly used for policy-making, scientific, administrative, educational and recreational purposes. Proficiency with spatial concepts and data is sought-after by employers and necessary for effective environmental and policy leadership. This class will provide a basic overview of GIS and their use in capturing, analyzing, and communicating spatial information. Students will gain skills in working with and displaying spatial data, as well as an appreciation for the diverse ways that GIS may be applied to problems associate with their specific area of interest (e.g., land use planning, conservation planning, environmental and human health and management). By the end of the course, students will understand technical GIS vocabulary, understand the role of GIS in management processes and research projects, manipulate and work with most spatial data models, carry out basic spatial analysis and create professionally looking cartographic outputs and web maps. Furthermore, students will gain hands-on experience with ArcGIS, the most popular GIS platform. Classes will include lecture material, online modules and hands-on lab work. AU classroom learning platform, Sakai will be instrumental in class instruction.

Section A: Fash Farashahi

Times:   Section A: Fridays, September 3 – December 17, 8:00 – 11:00 am, Classroom

Section B: Fridays, September 3 – December 17, 1:00pm – 4:00pm, On-line-meetings.

Leadership for change is the art of structuring organizations and collaboration, building morale and vision, and facilitating group deliberation and decision-making to guide effective policy-setting and organizational work that makes a positive difference at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, field, and societal levels.  This course will help students develop the skills and understandings that support leadership that is adaptive, inclusive, participatory, collaborative, culturally competent, and effective.  Participants in this class will be challenged to explore 1) personal leadership competencies and styles; 2) group dynamics, inclusion, and team facilitation; 3) strategies for engaging diverse stakeholders; and 4) the capacity of creative leadership to facilitate large-scale systemic change.

Section A: Jason Rhoades

Section B: Abigail Abrash Walton

Times:   Section A: Fridays, September 3 – December 17, 8:00 – 11:00 am

Section B: Fridays, September 3 – December 17, 1:00pm – 4:00pm

In this course we will study the relationships between placed-based environmental education, sense of place, and community.  We will use David Greenwood’s place-conscious education (PCE) as the overarching theoretical framing for the course. PCE encompasses decolonization and re-inhabitation i.e. asking three questions: What happened here? What is happening? What should happen? (Greenwood, 2014). Additionally, we will consider a variety of questions as we explore the value and challenges of place-based environmental education, using participants’ communities and neighborhoods as places of study. For example: What do the phrases “place-based environmental education” and “sense of place” mean? What is the role of place in learning: Its histories, present-day realities, and futures? How can we, as environmental educators, work together with our students in developing a sense of place? How do we develop a sense of place in the face of globalization, homogenization of cultures and global pandemic? We will learn through individual self-reflection, collaboration with classmates, as well as experiencing a range of place-based learning in our various communities.

Section A:  Jean Kayira

Time: Wednesdays 12:00pm – 3:00pm  September  8 – November 24

“If I told you the answer, those of you still thinking about the problem would probably stop…”  In the spirit of Catherine Fosnot’s remark, we will explore teaching science in middle and high schools from a problem-solving and inquiry-based orientation.  We will solve problems about problems and inquire into the nature of inquiry. We will experience problem solving and inquiry from the perspectives of learners and teachers. Therefore, whether you are trying to figure out how to lift a classmate with one arm, the engineering of a pneumatic pump, or how to sustain multiple generations of life in a sealed container, we will reflect about the teaching of and learning through problem-solving and inquiry based approaches.

Most if not all of our classes will meet at the Brattleboro Area Middle School and Brattleboro Union High School, two of our three lab schools, where you will have opportunities to observe, assist, and teach science lessons using problem solving approaches.  Although this class will meet on Fridays, its exact time will be determined once the Brattleboro School system finalizes their fall school schedule, and in particular, the start of their school day.

Sections A: Gopal Krishnamurthy

Time: Thursdays, September 2 – December 16, 8:00 am – 11:00 am

Program evaluation is an essential (& marketable) skill among environmental education and conservation professionals.  Evaluation can help stakeholders make informed decisions, gain insights into the merit of a given initiative and contribute to continual program improvement.  Students design an evaluation of their choosing and work together to complete an evaluation with an external client. In conjunction with these practical applications, this course will explore such topics as: evaluation purposes, using logic models to inform evaluation strategies, design considerations, data sources and collection, limitations and sources of bias in evaluation, data analysis, interpretation and use of evaluative findings.  Having such expertise sets the stage for success by enhancing course participants’ ability to make informed evaluative decisions in a variety of contexts.

Section A: Jean Kayira

Time: Fridays, September 3 – December 17, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

This course will focus on gaining competency in the three phases of the grants process: planning, research, and writing.  Students will research and explore public and private funding sources appropriate to the human services and environmental fields.  The criteria for selecting potential funding sources, the basic elements of a proposal, and developing successful collaborative efforts will be emphasized.  Students will interactively engage in each phase of the process and will demonstrate their learning through the development of a funding proposal that is relevant to their area of concentration or research.  Effective project management tools and skills (such as tracking personnel, budget spread sheets, use of Gantt charts, etc.) will be discussed and explored through case studies and classroom applications.  * synchronous time will be arranged and encouraged for real-time discussion but not required

Section A:  Christa Daniels

Time: Saturdays 1:00pm – 5:00pm; Sundays 8:00am – 12:00pm   Sept 11-12, Oct 9-10, Nov 13-14, Dec 4-5

Vertebrate Ecology: Ornithology explores the class Aves and the diversity, behavior, annual cycles, morphology, habitat relationships, conservation, speciation, and reproduction strategies of birds. We will also cover sampling techniques, identification, citizen science, and data management and analysis. Although we will examine birds throughout the world, we will emphasize species found in New England.  We will investigate topics through a combination of lectures, class discussions and debates, student presentations, field trips, hands-on lab exercises, assignments, and readings in textbooks and in the scientific literature. Throughout the semester, students will plan, implement, write, and present an avian research or management project. We will have two full-day (including driving) Saturday field trips.

Section A: Mike Akresh

Time: Thursdays, Sept 2 – December 16, 8:00 am – 11:00 am, plus Saturday October 2, 6:30 am – 12:30 pm.

This course will provide an overview of the wetlands communities within the New England region. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s wetlands classification scheme (Corwardin, et. al.) will be the foundation for this review. Students will have an opportunity not only to learn about typical wetland types in New England, but also gain an understanding of the underlying abiotic factors that influences the observed biotic community structure. In addition, students will be introduced to the wetlands evaluation procedures developed to assess the functional values of wetlands in the context of the greater watershed.

Section A: Michael Simpson

Times: Fridays, Sept 3 – December 17, 1:00pm – 4:00pm  +  Sundays  10/17 & 10/31  8am-4pm

This course examines the flow of materials and energy through one’s home, business, and community. Students will learn sustainability concepts with regard to materials and energy and tools sustainability professionals use to track, manage, and measure the impact and economic costs (or savings) from the flow of materials and energy through any business or organization.

Students will learn the specific quantification and assessment skills to model beneficial changes in standard operating procedures, change in technology and/or change in production inputs that leads to a more sustainable utilization of resources and reduction in pollutants. Specific skills include learning how to map a system’s process flow, quantify inputs and outputs, translate proposed beneficial changes into avoided-cost, how to implement programmatic behavior change strategies for any business, organization, or institution, and reporting platforms the business community uses to communicate and document progress.

Section A: Peter Cooke

Times: Saturdays & Sundays 10:00am-12:00pm;  September 4^th-Sept 26^th

ONLINE DELIVERY

This course will support, and build on, the 1 credit Summer intensive Earth Systems and Climate Change course. It will examine the linked interactions between and among the geologic, atmospheric, hydrologic (marine and terrestrial), and pedologic global-to regional- to local dynamics of environmental change, through a student-based focus on global and local bioregionalism.

Section A:  Dawn Murray

Times:    September 5 – December 11

+ optional discussion sessions Tuesdays 5:30-6:30pm;  Sept 14 & 28, Oct 12 & 26^th, Nov 9 & 23

ONLINE delivery

This course will provide students with an understanding of how to assess the system dynamics associated with materials generation and composition, internal collection and storage and eventual set out, transfer, recovery and/or disposal. Concurrently students will be introduced to the concept of a circular materials economy and investigate what the Achilles heel may be that limits the recovery of targeted materials from disposal. Skills will be developed in accounting and mass-balance tracking of materials flow across embedded system boundaries; as well as, being introduced to best management practices that can reduce or avoid non- product material releases beyond the organization’s boundaries. This will be supplemented on how best to develop protocols in purchasing so to impact waste minimization up a supply chain, while concurrently developing strategies that allows producers to avoid environmental impacts from their choice of product design and intended use. Students will be able to prioritize alternative production processes through both a lens of carbon emissions avoidance and return on investment calculations.

Section A: Michael Simpson

Times: Saturdays & Sundays  10:00am-12:00pm; October 2^nd -Oct 31^st

ONLINE DELIVERY

Students will be introduced to the language and conversion factors utilized in the analysis of electrical generation and conservation. With this foundation students will be trained in calculating energy use from observed appliances, fixtures and standard operating procedures within an organization. This will be supplemented with guidance in how to conduct level-two energy audits. Subsequently, each student will be asked to complete such an audit for both their own living space. Skills will be introduced and practiced so to determine greenhouse gas emissions both from internal operations of an organization, as well as from the source of electricity from the utility provider. Students will also be introduced to social marketing techniques that will aid them within an organization, as well as within their community, to target unsustainable energy use behavior and subsequently build a commitment to improving such behavior. Each student will be able to apply such techniques within the context of their own workplace or community.

Section A: Peter Cooke

Times: Saturdays & Sundays 10:00am – 12:00pm;  November 13^th – December 12^th

ONLINE DELIVERY

The United Nations Secretary-General called the 6th IPCC report “an ear-splitting wake-up call to the world. It confirms that climate change is running faster than we are – and we are running out of time” (United Nations Secretary General, 2018). But how do individuals take action beyond reducing their own carbon footprint? How can we advocate for the policies that will help solve this global crisis? While there is growing awareness in the U.S. Congress that action must be taken, federal legislators have little incentive to act unless there is focused engagement by constituents. This course will provide participants with step-by-step skills in utilizing the tools of democracy to take meaningful civic action on climate change. Participants will learn the levers for building political will and the essentials of climate change communication. You will apply your learning by taking action in collaboration with a local environmental organization, and further your learning with your peers via Antioch’s online learning platform and optional one-on-one meetings with the instructor.

Section A: Abi Abrash

Times: Tuesdays, 12:00pm to 1:15pm  September 7 – November 30

ONLINE DELIVERY

Human activity has exacerbated the shift in global climate and is resulting in impacts to natural systems and human-built infrastructure, which will influence future economic development and business decision-making. In the Fifth Assessment Report, the IPCC concluded: “Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems” (IPCC, 2014a). These impacts include sea level rise, flooding, droughts, heat waves, and other extreme weather events. The concept of resilience associated with the ecological field has appeared in various discourses, and since Holling (1973), has had a substantial impact in the field. The term resilience has resulted in different interpretations by different fields of study. Since Holling (1973), there have been distinctions made between the uses in engineering, psychology, economics, disaster risk management, ecological, and socio-ecological resilience in the climate change discourse. Many municipal decision-makers tend to think of climate change preparedness as engineering resilience. They strive to return to or “bounce back” to what the community looked like and how it functioned prior to a disaster. However, this prior state may have included social injustice, inadequate public infrastructure and housing, other hazard vulnerability, and a weak local economy. Therefore it is important to define and recognize the aspects of resilience that involve “transformative socio-political change”. In addition, resilience needs to incorporate both the spatial and temporal scales to be successful and not result in mal-adaptive solutions. The glossary of the AR5-WGII report defines maladaptation as: “Actions that may lead to increased risk of adverse climate-related outcomes, increased vulnerability to climate change, or diminished welfare, now or in the future”. Unfortunately, there exists a myriad of climate responses that can increase resilience for one group, sector or geographic location while simultaneously increasing vulnerability for a different system, location or group of individuals. This module consists of foundational knowledge in the science of our changing climate, understanding the boundaries of “uncertainty” in future projections being posited by the scientific community, how to translate the “risk” being faced by a community, business, or sector, and finally, the different concepts of climate resilience and how they manifest as solutions.

Section A: Christa Daniels

Offered online asynchronous;  September 12 through October 9

Local and regional governments are leaders in climate change due to their unique position to make a wide range of decisions that can mitigate and adapt to our changing climate. Because they are on the frontline, many communities have conducted vulnerability assessments and engaged in adaptation planning. This module will enable participants to assess impacts to a business, community, or sector based on specific climate projections for a specific locale. This focuses on identifying what and who are most vulnerable to such impacts, which requires the ability to facilitate a stakeholder process to prioritize these identified vulnerabilities, including with respect to business supply chains, and actionable responses. This module will also provide you with the overview of planning for resiliency and adaptation at different scales. After this module, you should feel comfortable knowing what steps need to be taken to integrate resiliency recommendations and projects into community planning and policy processes.

Section A: Christa Daniels

Offered Online;  October 10 through November 6^th

Local and regional governments are leaders in climate change due to their unique position to make a wide range of decisions that can mitigate and adapt to our changing climate. Because they are on the frontline, many communities have conducted vulnerability assessments and engaged in adaptation planning. This module will enable participants to assess impacts to a business, community, or sector based on specific climate projections for a specific locale. This focuses on identifying what and who are most vulnerable to such impacts, which requires the ability to facilitate a stakeholder process to prioritize these identified vulnerabilities, including with respect to business supply chains, and actionable responses. This module will also provide you with the overview of planning for resiliency and adaptation at different scales. After this module, you should feel comfortable knowing what steps need to be taken to integrate resiliency recommendations and projects into community planning and policy processes.

Section A: Christa Daniels

Offered Online;  November 7^th  through December 5^th

This course focuses on professional orientation and ethical practice in counseling. Students will be introduced to the counseling profession through extensive review of the American Counseling Association’s (ACA) Code of Ethics and licensure laws for the state in which they plan to practice. Students will understand the benefits of professional membership in counseling organizations (e.g., ACA and its divisions). Legal issues in counseling and the role of social justice and advocacy as they apply to ethics and the law will be introduced.

Restrictions: Priority to matriculated CMHC students, permission of the department.
Instructor: Heather Warfield
Methodology: Online August 30 to Dec. 12 With additional scheduled zoom meetings  10 -11:30 am

What does it mean to teach and engage our students in our modern world? How might we use principles of STEAM to engage all students? How can we design and implement STEM education and design thinking strategies building on our professional priorities (ie. the Critical Skills Classroom, nature based education, arts integration, etc.) as well as developmentally appropriate pedagogy? How can we use technology to support student learning? What’s the difference between STEM, STEAM, and STREAM? These questions will be explored in this online course designed to deepen understanding and inspire teachers to a new level of practice. Students will work both on their own and collaboratively to explore and learn about these various topics for practical classroom implementation. Focus will also be given to modern tools to support STEAM and learning in both face-to-face and virtual environments. Participants will design powerful learning experiences for these classrooms as well as formative and summative assessments. Online Course.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Jackie Gerstein

Delivery: Online 9/5/21-12/12/21, Asynchronous

Compassion and compassionate action in education can be informed by a framework that points to a new and fresh understanding of the source of distress in oneself, one’s students and one’s colleagues. The framework is known as the eight worldly conditions and it posits a sequence of four opposite conditions that are ever changing and impersonal. These four opposites are: pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, and fame and disrepute. Understanding distress from the perspective of this framework can help educators to recognize and to shape compassionate action as the most caring and useful response to distress. Through readings and presentations, this course presents the eight worldly conditions and three mindfulness-compassion practices that can help educators to directly connect with their own experience and to wise, compassionate action in the midst of their classrooms and educational contexts.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Robert Black

Delivery: Online 9/5/21-12/12/21, Asynchronous

This course will focus on a systems-thinking approach to the management (i.e. design and maintenance) of institutional facilities and school-community partnerships. Integrated systems within a school which enable it to function and serve its community will be explored in the context of larger ecological, economic, and social systems. Resource use, energy flow, waste management, and green buildings will be investigated. Applying what they learn to their own organization’s practices, students will formulate a collaborative community partnership to improve sustainable practice and meet desired learning outcomes. Cost-benefit analyses will be applied to facilities management and curriculum coordination. Learning from this course may be integrated with and applied to practica.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Paul Bocko

Delivery: Online 9/5/21-12/12/21, Asynchronous

Drawing on children’s natural fascination with the world around them and their desire to make the world right, place-based education in the school setting offers an opportunity to develop a classroom into a living center of materials-based, community- related, cooperative learning, while fostering in children the attitudes, understandings and skills of environmentally literate citizens. This course will explore the potential roles of place- based education in an integrated curriculum examining both environmental education content areas and teaching strategies for the elementary years. Additional course focus will include approaches to dealing with environmental issues, both in the classroom as a school community; strategies for taking full advantage of a school’s outdoor site; and techniques for promoting a working interrelationship with the community.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Paul Bocko

Delivery: Online 8/30/21-12/12/21, Asynchronous, with additional face-to-face meetings on AUNE campus: Fridays  9/10, 10/8, 11/5, 12/3  from 2:30-5pm ET, AUNE Room 231

Young children are natural storytellers, making sense of the world through imaginative, dramatic play. Young children are also inclined to move! They explore their surroundings and express ideas and feelings with their bodies. This course highlights the importance of story and motion in children’s daily lives and focuses on ways to use storytelling, story acting, and creative movement to enrich the early childhood classroom.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Carla Beebe Comey

Delivery:Online 10/23/21-12/4/21 Asynchronous, with synchronous Zoom meetings Saturday 11/13/21 and Sunday 11/14/21 from 9:00am-5:00pm EST.

Introduction to Humane Education explores the principle of doing the “most good and least harm” and applies this ethic with innovative thinking and action to the field of education. The course looks at humanity and the world through a historical lens and offers a vision for a better future that relies on reason, compassion, evidence-based optimism, and systems awareness to bring about positive long- term change.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Mary Pat Champeau

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous

Environmental Ethics addresses some of the most pressing environmental issues in the world. Topics include climate change, endangered species, pollution, habitat destruction, environmental racism, and resource depletion. The course offers a solutions-oriented approach that balances analyzing problems with identifying strategies to create sustainable and restorative systems. It also examines how we might learn and teach about environmental issues in a way that encourages people to focus on solutions that work for all people, animals, and the Earth.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Dana McPhall

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous

Animal Protection covers a wide range of issues including animal agriculture, experimentation, hunting and trapping, companion animals, and animals used in entertainment. The course explores different philosophies regarding the inherent rights of sentient animals to be free from exploitation and abuse and encourages students to grapple with and determine their own ethics regarding nonhuman animals. The course further examines ways in which we can protect humans, animals, and ecosystems for the good of all. Coursework helps students develop techniques for learning and teaching about complex issues in a manner that invites dialogue and solutions.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Sarah Bexell

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous

This course explores issues of human rights by analyzing critical challenges and envisioning possible solutions. Specific issues include modern slavery, child labor, human trafficking, racism, gender inequity, poverty, power, and privilege. The course also examines acts of human courage, collaboration, conscious consumerism, systemic change, and global citizenship. It invites students to find in themselves and others sources of deep humaneness and to develop models of compassion, integrity, and courage. Coursework helps students learn to educate in ways that address conflict effectively and eliminate oppression.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Dana McPhall

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous

Culture and Change explores the many ways in which cultural norms influence ideas, beliefs, and actions; and how change making happens. Covering social psychology, consumerism, media, economics, and politics, this course provides a foundational overview for understanding the ways in which people are shaped by their cultures. Coursework focuses on critical analysis of cultural systems, the role of cultural conditioning in our lives, and strategies for educating effectively and creatively about these issues. By recognizing the ways in which our thoughts and behaviors are molded by culture, students gain the ability to live and educate more mindfully, and to help bring about transformative cultural change.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Mary Pat Champeau

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous

Building a Solutionary Practice is an exploration of information, tools, strategies, and skills necessary to reflect on the nature of knowledge and its power to affect positive change. This course helps students become confident researchers and presenters of information, two skills at the heart of being an effective humane educator. It also offers students an opportunity to deeply research and explore a problem of interest to them, then craft an article or essay weaving together strategies drawn from evidence-based optimism, elements of effective thinking, and appreciative inquiry that presents the problem and proposes a solution.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Kristine Tucker

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous

Just Good Food explores how contemporary food systems and individual food choices relate to human, animal, and environmental social justice issues. Just Good Food focuses on the connections between food systems and issues of hunger, poverty, animal protection, climate change, healthcare, sustainability, legislative policies, and corporate interests. The course surveys a broad range of food- related issues, with the opportunity for further study in a personal area of interest. The course also highlights solutions-focused organizations, practices, and policies. Students learn to think critically about how food choices affect all living beings and the planet and gain insight into food-related politics and policy.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Cynthia Trapanese

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous

In this course participants live like writers, thinkers, and creators of wisdom, cultivating and contemplating questions that matter. Through the medium of transformative language arts, students discover what it means to be earth-inspired, animal-inspired, and human-inspired, positioning and empowering words for personal and social change. Through an online retreat design, writers are immersed in readings, music, short films, mindfulness meditation, and experiential writing activities as a source of inspiration and a springboard for independent and/or collaborative writing projects. All genres are open for exploration. Writing circles meet online to share progress, inspirational tips, and resources.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Kristine Tucker

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous

In this course, students explore issues of intersectionality, racism, and racial justice within the specific context of veganism. Through structured conversation as well as research, reflection, and practical application, students learn how to educate effectively and seek solutions that address overlapping systems of racial injustice and animal exploitation.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Dana McPhall

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous

Creative Activism offers a study of literary, performance, and visual artists who focus their work on one or more facets of comprehensive humane education—human rights, animal protection, and environmental stewardship. In addition to studying solutions-focused art and artists, students will examine their own experience with the creative process, design original and collaborative work, and practice integrating art for social change into their own lives, teaching, and/or community outreach. Educators, activists, artists, writers, visionaries, and anyone curious about creative activism will discover ways to cross the bridge from despair to action with the support of a dynamic learning community.

Restrictions: None

Faculty: Cynthia Trapanese

Delivery: Online 9/13/21-12/17/21, Asynchronous