Sustainable Communities news
Members of Northern Arizona University’s Sustainable Communities program are making a difference every day. Discover what projects and studies they are currently involved in.
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Graduate student Joseph Amazuwa Chirwa improves livelihoods in African community Accordion Closed
Joseph Amazuwa Chirwa, a graduate student in Sustainable Communities and recipient of the 2019 Maxwell-Lutz Community Impact Award, spent the summer in Africa working on a community-based waste management project in the Chitete-Kasungu Municipality in Malawi. The month-long project aimed to help the local community realize the economic incentive that lies beneath waste. Working specifically with the Chitete Women Cooperative, Joseph encouraged and implemented recycling and composting in the township’s communal garden, worked with the cooperative to manage solid waste, and stressed the importance of micro credit through waste management. He also introduced an in-school recycling campaign to develop technologies to mitigate the waste program. The initial project, intended to improve the livelihood of this low-income municipality, has now been adopted by the community. The project is made possible through funding by Susanna Maxwell and Barry Lutz.
ACLS grant fuels Sustainable Communities’ community work Accordion Closed
In 2022 Sustainable Communities was awarded a $48,000 grant from the American Council of Learned Societies to help underwrite our program’s extensive student-community engagement work. The grant supports graduate students working in Community-University Public Inquiry and in the Community Engagement Minor; community partners involved include the City of Flagstaff, Northern Arizona Interfaith Council, St. Mary’s Food Bank, and others. We’re grateful for this expression of support!
Peter Friederici authors new book on climate storytelling Accordion Closed
Peter Friederici, a professor in the School of Communication and Sustainable Communities Program, recently published Beyond Climate Breakdown: Envisioning New Stories of Radical Hope through the MIT Press. The book argues that mainstream climate narratives promote neither agency nor hope, and suggests pathways for developing alternatives that feature multiple voices and otherwise unseen futures. The book was recently featured as a selection at the Next Big Idea Club.
Parched exhibit wins research/creative activity award Accordion Closed
Parched: The Art of Water in the Southwest is a multimedia art exhibit that was on display at the Coconino Center for the Arts in late 2020, and is now on view at the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, Arizona. SUS program coordinator Peter Friederici contributed essays to the exhibit, which this spring won the 2021 Research/Creative Activity Award from the NAU Office of Research. Friederici’s fellow award winners were Josh Biggs (NAU Marketing), Debra Edgerton (College of Arts and Letters), Neal Galloway (College of Arts and Letters), and Jane Marks (ECOSS).