Call for Faculty Proposals: Sustainability Curriculum Funding Opportunity

We are excited to announce the Tishman Center’s faculty funding opportunity for Academic Year 2017-2018.  The Tishman Center will offer grants to faculty members designing projects to develop curriculum or pedagogy that addresses a set of core sustainability learning competencies.

This funding opportunity is focused in part, in response to a mandate from University Leadership to ensure environmental and climate literacy across our student body. Sustainability literacy is increasingly important for graduating students in a society faced with climate disruption and adaptation. New School graduates already contribute to real-world solutions, from applying green design principles in architecture to shaping environmental policy. For the coming years, the Tishman Center will develop a fully integrated framework that positions sustainability as a lead priority within the curriculum. Part of that framework will include the design of new or expanded curriculum grounded in specific disciplines but tied to our shared learning goals.

What does the fund support:

Funds will support the development of innovative curriculum materials focused on defined sustainability learning outcomes, including social justice values and environmental literacy competencies students should develop in order to graduate from the New School. These competencies express the mission and values of the Tishman Center and will help fulfill the mandate from the Office of the Provost.

Curriculum materials could include things such as specific content modules, syllabi, in-person workshops, assignments or supplementary materials that complement course assignments, guidelines for faculty, or online content such as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that address our shared sustainability learning outcomes. Proposals may serve as prototypes for innovative curriculum that fulfills sustainability learning goals across all the schools and disciplines in the university.

Grant Amounts:

Grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded, based on needs reflected in submitted proposal or budget.

Applicant Eligibility:

This funding program is open to principal members of the full-time faculty, including those faculty with the following full-time appointments: tenure, tenure track, extended employment, extended employment track, and renewable term appointment. The fund is also open to part-time faculty members.Project Eligibility:The funds support the creation of curriculum materials. Funds may be used to design and prototype new projects or to assess or implement existing initiatives on a wider scale. Applications are welcomed for projects in undergraduate education, graduate education, online learning, lifelong learning and experiential learning.

Criteria for Selection:

Projects must:

  • Have a clear plan for engaging students around sustainability learning outcomes

  • Have the possibility to be replicated by other faculty members either in their field or used by other disciplines

  • Suggest a template for long-term adoption by the university

Priority will be given to projects that

  • Are innovative – may be modular, stackable, and flexible methods of learning

  • A portion of the funding is set aside for hiring students to work as Research Assistants

  • Include disciplines or fields that are not traditionally associated with sustainability – for instance, non-environmental departments such as performing or visual arts, writing, media, etc.

  • Engage students around movement building, activism and civic participation

  • Respond to gaps in the university’s curriculum, or develop scalable resources that would supplement or can be integrated into existing courses and curriculum

  • Engage external community-based or grassroots organizations and may include defined benefits to the community

  • Utilize interdisciplinary collaborations that include at least two New School faculty members from different schools or programs

  • Advance innovation in curriculum, public engagement, and public scholarship

  • Align with existing, long term research projects

Evaluating Committee

A committee will be selected to evaluate the submissions. It’s members will include faculty, staff and administrators from across The New School with experience in regard to curriculum development and implementation, sustainability core literacy and social and environmental justice.

Project proposals will be reviewed and ranked on the following criteria: scalability, innovation, praxis orientation, and budget specificity and comprehensiveness.

Application

View and download the application

Fill in and submit your application materials to tedc@newschool.edu.

The deadline to submit the application is June 1, 2017.

All materials must be submitted electronically via email.