The new Center for Environment, Community and Equity at American University held a campus-wide launch event on October 20th. Students, faculty and staff from various environmental disciplines were introduced to the Center’s leadership and his vision for CECE’s function. The event concluded with remarks from her keynote speaker, Maxine Burkett, Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Fisheries and Polar Affairs at the Office of Marine and International Environmental Sciences.
CECE fosters collaboration between different schools and departments working to solve environmental problems. Simon Nicholson, associate professor in the Department of International Services and director of CECE, explained that the center was the solution to his AU’s communication problems.
“The new Campus Center for Environment, Community and Equity was born out of a very simple observation: AU has great people doing environmental work, but we don’t know each other.” says Nicholson.
This event was held to bring together students and faculty researchers interested in interdisciplinary networks to envision their structure. CECE Executive Her Director Justine Williams said the center’s leadership is interested in getting input from the community on how to best shape CECE.
“The participants are thrilled with the opportunity and are very excited to work with us to co-create the roadmap for this year and beyond,” she said.
Sauleh Siddiqui, deputy director of CECE and associate professor of environmental sciences, said that the field of environmental studies has been trying to communicate informally throughout the campus for years, but it has been more effective. He said he always wanted something structured that would encourage collaboration.
Center for Environment, Community, and Equity leadership says the center will use interdisciplinary collaboration to highlight the intersectionality of the conversation on environmental issues. Diana Burley, AU’s vice-chancellor of research and innovation and professor of public policy, said CECE intends to advance her research at AU and approach problems while understanding their complexity. .
“The world doesn’t exist in disciplinary silos. We do that in college, but that’s not how the world exists,” Burley said. The fact that we are able to tackle these issues from , makes CECE even more powerful.”
Malini Ranganathan, a CECE undergraduate affiliate and SIS associate professor, said he hopes the center will value input from the community.
“It is very important that the voice of the community drives our research priorities, and our students want this from us,” said Ranganathan. “Rather than experts trying to dictate research ideas to the community, the voice of the community is leading the design of the research. That is what decolonizing research really means.”
Mollie Russell, who holds a master’s degree in sustainability management from the Kogod School of Business, also wants community engagement to be a focus of CECE.
“I work for Zero Waste Secretariat, [and] There is no glue between that and the actual department,” said Russell. “I hope so [CECE] realize the vision. ”
Faculty members are another member of the community that CECE hopes to involve in this project. Claudia Persico, an assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy, said she hopes the center will connect faculty with other groups and foster collaborative thinking.
“They can provide money for faculty and students to work together. They can foster research, and that research can have a community dimension.”
Nicholson emphasized that the ultimate goal is to promote the AU to make a lasting impact on solving environmental problems.
“At the moment, we as a campus don’t have the impact that we should have given the talent of the people that we have. But at this point, it’s a promise,” said Nicholson. It’s about starting to accept the need for seed effort and supporting it.”
wwhalen@theeagleonline.com
