Environmental Studies Educator to Speak at CofC

Environmental studies educator Peter Blaze Corcoran is visiting the College on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, to deliver a lecture on sustainability literacy.

Corcoran’s lecture, titled “Make Earth Cool Again: Empowering Students in Higher Education Sustainability,” will take place from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Addlestone Library, room 227.

The talk will provide a rationale for the urgency of work in sustainability literacy in higher education. Corcoran will explore the meaning of sustainability, of education for sustainable development and of sustainability literacy. The emphasis will be on what individuals can do to advance social justice, including gender equity and sustainability at the College of Charleston. Corcoran will also share leading-edge trends that are advancing higher education sustainability and student empowerment. These include the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Earth Charter, indigenous perspectives, the interfaith initiative to care for creation and intergenerational collaboration.

Corcoran is professor emeritus of environmental studies and environmental education at Florida Gulf Coast University. He has been a faculty member at the College of the Atlantic, Swarthmore College, and Bates College and has held appointments as a visiting professor at universities in Australia, the Netherlands, Fiji, Malaysia and Kenya. New posts since his recent retirement include serving as a research fellow at the Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development, University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica; senior fellow at Forum 21 Institute in New York City; and senior advisor at Unity Earth Center in Melbourne, Australia.

The event is sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies program. Co-sponsors include the Sustainability Literacy Institute, the Department of Political Science, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Religious Studies, African Studies, Environmental and Sustainability Studies, and the Master of Science in Environmental Studies program.