River City Project: Sustainability Across the Curriculum

How can you best integrate a sustainability lens into your teaching, courses, pedagogy, and worldview?

Overview

At the University of Richmond, sustainability is defined as the creation of environmental, social, and economic conditions that foster health and well-being for people and the natural world in this generation and for the generations to come. Sustainability is an inherently interdisciplinary approach for shaping a better world and can be applied to any discipline or field.

The River City Project, UR’s Faculty Development Workshop is focused on creating the space for faculty to ideate how to incorporate the practice and principles of sustainability into their curriculum through exploring various sustainability frameworks, networking with others, place-based education, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

 

Logistics

Participating faculty will attend a two-day workshop on May 7 and 8, 2025, hosted by UR’s Office for Sustainability, and will primarily meet on campus in addition to experiential trips both on and off campus. Through design exercises and discussion centered on local-to-global sustainability issues and challenges, participants will develop a shared understanding of sustainability, explore sustainability competencies and pedagogy, cultivate a justice lens, and develop or enhance their sustainability worldview. Participants will receive a stipend for attending the two-day workshop.

Following the two-day workshop in May, participants will be invited to continue as a cohort for the following year. Cohort members will convene for quarterly meetings following September, November, January, and March for continued dialogue. The River City Project cohort will highlight course modifications to their syllabus for how they’ve included or enhanced sustainability in an existing or new course, in addition to being encouraged to host their own workshop, engagement event, or project to be determined. Following completion of the cohort, participants will receive an additional stipend.

To apply for the 2025 River City Project, please fill out this application. Email Daniel Hart at dhart@richmond.edu for more information.

 

Past Participants of the River City Project

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  • 2024
    • David Kitchen, Associate Dean of SPCS and Associate Professor
    • Elizabeth Outka, Professor of English
    • Olubukola (Bukky) Olayiwola, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
    • Andy Grace, Assistant Professor of Journalism
    • Marcella Torres, Director of Mathematics
    • Nancy Tran, Assistant Professor of Finance
    • Trey Sutton, Associate Professor of Management
    • Doug Bosse, Associate Dean of International Business Programs
    • Abdullah Kumas, Associate Professor of Accounting and Professor of Management
  • 2023
    • Olivia Aronson, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship
    • Michelle Montague-Mfuni , Assistant Professor of Management
    • Cheryl Pallant, Adjunct Instructor (Theatre and Dance)
    • Michael Marsh-Soloway, Director, Global Studio
    • Ihab AbuZayda , Adjunct Instructor, Analytics & Operations
    • Tricia Stohr-Hunt , Assistant Professor of Elementary Education
    • Rick Mayes, Professor of Health Policy
    • Danielle Stokes , Assistant Professor of Law
    • Andrew Alwood, Visiting Lecturer, Robins School of Business
    • Nicole Sackley, Associate Professor of History and American Studies
  • 2015
    • Melissa Ooten, Director, will Program, Associate Dean, Social Justice Engagement and Practice, Westhampton College, Affiliated Faculty, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies
    • Elizabeth Schlatter, Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions
    • Amy Treonis, Associate Professor of Biology
    • Judith Schrempf-Stirling, Assistant Professor of Management
    • Mary Finley-Brook, Associate Professor of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability
    • Martin Sulzer-Reichel, Modern Literatures and Culture
    • Maja E. White, Associate Professor of Theatre
  • 2014
    • Joyce van der Laan Smith, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Business Programs, Professor of Accounting
    • Meghan Rosatelli, Part-Time Instructor, Art
    • Eugene Wu, Associate Professor of Biology and Biochemistry
    • Olivier Delers, Professor of French
    • Todd Lookingbill, Associate Professor of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability
    • David Salisbury, Associate Professor of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability
    • Carol Summers, Professor of History and Global Studies
    • Andy Litteral, Associate Professor of Management
    • Elizabeth Ransom, Associate Professor of Sociology
  • 2013
    • Daniel Paik, Associate Professor of Accounting
    • Emily Boone, Director of Biological Instruction
    • Carrie Wu, Associate Professor of Biology
    • Mavis Brown, Associate Professor of Education
    • Yvonne Howell, Professor of Russian and Global Studies
    • Ladelle McWhorter, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies