Main Content
Dr. Harris recently received a Rutgers Global Engagement Grant to build a new study abroad program on Scottish Sustainability! It will be a three-week course led by Professor Harris and launch in the Summer of 2025. He will travel to Scotland in June this summer to meet potential academic and community partners and assess travel, lodging, and facilities that could be used in the program.
The proposed program includes urban, rural, and island sites across the country. Scotland provides a unique setting to study sustainability and is a world leader in both sustainability and social innovation. The arts and storytelling are embedded in Scottish culture and will be integrated into this course across the different sites in the best tradition of Patrick Geddes. We will visit community owned islands, community energy projects, marine conservation zones, local farms and foodsheds, local businesses and social enterprises in cities and small villages, museums, botanical gardens, and even a cathedral or castle two.
Professor Harris may even bring his Kilt!
Many of the sustainability challenges Scotland faces are uniquely rooted in its history and culture and the country provides a unique, bounded case through which to explore sustainability practices and policies rooted in culture, identity, institutions, and history. Scottish law and policy (independent of United Kingdom laws and policies) have focused on empowering people and communities to engage in sustainable activities that increase economic and social well-being through community-based approaches to energy, housing, art, culture, language, and sustainable food systems.
Community buyouts, community energy projects, food systems & food sheds (“Scotland’s Natural Larder”), evolving practices and understandings of UK government devolution and its impact on Scottish sustainability, governance in the remote Highlands and Islands regions, the land ethic, marine resources, and the repeopling vs. rewilding debates will all be explored. “Sustainability at scale” such as large wind farms and massive rewilding projects and their impacts on people and communities in Scotland is also a prime focus of the course and will show connections between global solutions and hyperlocal realities.
The Scottish Highlands also have a long tradition of women leaders and entrepreneurs and we will meet some of these amazing people as we explore intersections of gender and sustainability across Scotland.
But! The course is immersive! That is, we will learn about Scottish sustainability by immersing ourselves in these cities, small settlements, and islands grappling with sustainability and engage in close observation of people and places as we travel across this beautiful country and meet some incredibly smart, funny, and resourceful folks.
Professor Harris guarantees that you will make lifelong friends there!