Interdisciplinary collaboration at work:  Four Colleges offer joint graduate course on Global Sustainable Development

This semester, six faculty members from four colleges at NC State will offer a course (MIS 598/ANS 590) addressing the critical issues facing global sustainable development.  The faculty members participating are Gerry Luginbuhl (Microbiology, CALS), Vivek Fellner (Animal Science, CALS), Erin Sills (Forestry, CNR), Bob Moog (Political Science, CHASS), Duarte Morais (Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, CNR), and Frances de los Reyes (Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, COE). The course will develop student skills in global health care, agricultural sustainability, environmental law, and the role of local entrepreneurship in areas of conservation and tourism management.  Through the final project, students will gain experience writing and presenting a funding proposal for a development project.

This faculty group previously taught at TERI University in New Delhi, India last Spring under the auspices of a MacArthur Grant NC State received in partnership with TERI University and several others to create a Master of Development Practice degree at TERI.  “We were very excited to get the grant last year that facilitated our faculty to go to India and are happy that we are now able to bring their experiences back to NC State,” noted Heidi Hobbs, Director of the Master of International Studies here at NC State and the Principal Investigator on the MacArthur grant.  Professor Hobbs will travel with Professor Bob Moog to India in February to follow up on the grant and identify ways the two universities can continue their relationship.  TERI University is associated with The Energy and Resources Institute also in New Delhi headed by NC State Ph.D. graduate and Nobel prize winner, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri.