LA 5405 SEC 010 "Regreening Minds, Cities, and Regions" will be taught by Dr. Laura Musacchio this fall 2013 semester on Tuesdays from 6:20 - 8:50pm. Continue reading for more info regarding the course.
Dear students,
I am offering a new seminar this fall called Regreening Minds, Cities, and Regions. I really like teaching this seminar, so I believe that you will get a lot out of it. I would be delighted to answer any of your questions about the seminar so please email me at musac003@umn.edu.
Best wishes,
Laura Musacchio
Seminar Highlights
We will explore three key trends in regreening: urban agriculture (recultivating the city), urban water (restoring the city), and urban rewilding (rewilding the city). You also will gain greater interdisciplinary insights into the applied aspects of the regreening movement in cities and regions so they will better connect and improve your practices. Are you interested in finding out about what your peers in other majors think about regreening? Would you like to be involved in an interdisciplinary regreening project in the Twin Cities and meet local practitioners involved in regreening projects? We'll be doing all of things in this seminar. In addition, we'll also explore how sustainable actions and plans contribute to the politics, policies, metrics, and planning of alternative visions of urban nature and sustainability.
A new theme in this fall's seminar will be the social networks of stewardship that have been particularly active in regreening of cities and regions. These stewardship networks include a continuum of grassroots activists, student groups, civic ecology networks, citizen-based science, technical networks, and private-public partnerships. Would you like the opportunity to learn more about how these different types of stewardship networks work and apply ideas about sustainability and regreening? Could you see yourself one day be embedded in these stewardship networks and trying to foster more sustainable actions and plans? Could you see yourself working with professionals and residents to more successfully leverage resources, skills, and know-how for more successful regreening projects? We'll work on answering these questions including giving you concrete skills to facilitate discussions about different visions of urban nature and new techniques for fostering sustainable actions in people.
We'll read and discuss some new books and manifestos about the regreening movement that will provide universal lessons about what types of regreening projects work in the long-term from different perspectives: local residents, policymakers, designers, planners, conservation practitioners, scientists, and so on. These lessons help to answer this question: What types of regreening work in the real world? We'll also have a chance to explore the rich body of case studies about regreening by professionals and researchers.
Who can enroll in this seminar? Just about anybody who is curious about the topic. It's an interdisciplinary semi­nar for graduate students and advanced undergraduates in all majors.
Do you have any other special ideas, trends, or interests that you would like to share with me? I am eager to listen to you, so please contact me at musac003@umn.edu for more information. This seminar is always evolving because students always have a fresh perspective to bring to the discussion.
Biosketch of Laura Musacchio. Laura is an associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and has always enjoyed teaching interdisciplinary seminars to students in a broad range of majors. She strives to share her knowledge with students, so they can improve their own knowledge and practices. In her seminar, she encourages students to have a lively debate about topics from different perspectives as well as reflective time to sift through ideas and consider the possibilities. Outside of the classroom, she is doing research about the intersection of sustainability science and sustainable design for the design of more sustainable and resilient cities. She is a Resident Fellow at the Institute on the Environment. She is affiliated with the Ph.D. and M.S. programs in Conservation Biology and the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program and is a member of the editorial boards of the Landscape Ecology and Landscape and Urban Planning. For more information, please see www.lauramusacchio.com.
Click here for a course flyer.
