Duke Kunshan is offering a new course, Let’s Talk About Climate Change, for all undergraduates at the university.
This course, modeled after the Duke course of the same name, is part of the Duke-DKU climate commitment and uses a blended, interdisciplinary approach to raise awareness of climate change in all fields of study. Professors from natural science, social science, and arts and humanities worked together to design it.
“This course is not an environmental science course, but a course for the whole university,” said James Miller, Professor of Humanities and Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Initiatives at DKU. “Our message is that climate change changes everything, and will affect everyone in the DKU community over the course of their lifetimes.”
Miller led the course design along with Coraline Goron, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy, and Ding Ma, Assistant Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Science. Joining them for the course planning were nine new Climate Change Fellows:
Laura Davies, Senior Lecturer of English Language and Assistant Director of English for Academic Purposes
Kyle Fruh, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Rebecca Hock, Assistant Professor of Global Mental Health
Joseph Giacomelli, Assistant Professor of History
Pascal Grange, Associate Professor of Mathematics
Chuanhui Gu, Associate Professor of Environmental Science
Nathan Hauthaler, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Wumeng He, Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics
Yiu Wing (Jason) Kam, Assistant Professor of Global Health
Yitzhak Lewis, Assistant Professor of Humanities
Emily McWilliams, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Renee Richer, Associate Professor of Biology and Associate Chair of the Division of Natural and Applied Sciences
Robin Rodd, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Ben Van Overmeire, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Lijing Yan, Professor of Global Health and Head of Non-Communicable Chronic Diseases Research at the Global Health Research Center
Yanran Yang, Assistant Professor of Sustainability Studies
The goal was to show how climate change intersects with the full range of academic disciplines at DKU, and to prepare all students, regardless of their major, for a future transformed by climate change.
“Ultimately, we want students to come away with a positive experience,” says co-director of the course, Coraline Goron. “We want students to feel empowered, and to learn about solutions. We want to help students to be more informed, resilient, and hopeful about the future.”
The two-credit course, listed in the course catalog as DKU102, meets every Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. in the fall semester. Students learn from the professors in the first hour and then engage in discussions and activities in the second hour. Spanning 13 weeks of the fall semester, the course has no graded assignments, and students earn two credits by participating in the weekly classes.
