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There are big things happening related to the study of the environment and social justice at the College of St. Scholastica. Beginning this academic year (2023-24), the college is now offering a new major and minor in Global Sustainability and Justice.

This new academic program is an opportunity to build on the college's interdisciplinary offerings and provide students with a pathway toward meaningful careers that address generational interest in issues like climate change and social justice. As part of this effort to deepen the college's engagement with local challenges, including sustainability, the long-running public lecture series known as the Alworth Center for the Study of Peace and Justice is beginning a year-long program on "Water: Sustaining Life in the 21st Century."

The series kicked off on Sept. 28 with a lecture by tribal attorney and water protector Tara Houska, as well as a performance by the CSS Justice Choir club. On Oct. 26 environmental historian Nancy Langston, author of Climate Ghosts: Migratory Species in the Anthropocene and Sustaining Lake Superior: An Extraordinary Lake in a Changing World, spoke.

These two initiatives, a new academic program and a focus on water issues in the familiar lecture series, are part of a broader effort to strengthen interdisciplinary programming in the new School of Arts and Sciences and further the college's engagement with its core mission value of stewardship.

The College of St. Scholastica reorganized its academic divisions at the end of the 2022-23 year, combining schools in a reduction from six to three. As part of this merger, the former School of Arts and Letters joined with the former School of Sciences. The resulting School of Arts and Sciences offers students a more holistic and multidisciplinary experience, and creates new opportunities for collaboration between formerly disconnected departments.

The new academic program in Global Sustainability and Justice (GSJ) was created in this spirit. Students majoring in GSJ choose from four concentrations: Environmental Studies; Sustainable Management; Peace, Advocacy and Justice; or Global Public Health. All students take an introductory survey and then a set of core courses, including "Chemistry and Sustainability,""Environmental History of the Americas," an area studies course, and a social theory course.

One of the most unique aspects of this program is its broad definition of sustainability. In this program, students will explore what sustainability means, not only for the environment, but also for cultures, languages and communities.

Reflecting this feature of the program, students also take at least four credits of a language - CSS currently offers American Sign Language, German, Ojibwe and Spanish. This broad interpretation of sustainability to include marginalized and/or minority communities and cultures underscores the program's deep connections beyond the CSS campus.

Students in the program participate in an internship and complete a capstone research project, often in partnership with a local organization or community group. The community emphasis of the program reflects the faculty's close ties with local partners. But it also demonstrates how the challenges facing residents of this region – whether inequality, housing or climate change – are tied to broader global experiences.

In this regard, faculty in the program also have extensive contacts with partners in Central and South America, Europe and Russia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Students will thus emerge from this program with a strong understanding of how an issue, such as water access and conservation, is experienced in Duluth, Detroit and Düsseldorf, or in Cloquet, Cuernavaca and Cochabamba.

The new program in Global Sustainability and Justice is a mission-critical aspect of the College of St. Scholastica's commitment to place, specifically the Twin Ports region. As many readers know, Duluth is increasingly in the news as a so-called climate haven or climate sanctuary. The city has been featured on CNN, in the New York Times, and other outlets, in part due to the city's prominence in the studies of Tulane professor Jesse Keenan.

Whatever one thinks about this press – and the possible increase of newcomers – CSS and its GSJ program intend to be part of the conversation. Whose voices are heard in these debates? Whose voices are silenced? Can plans for climate change remediation also contend with chronic inequality, systemic racism, immigration policy, water access or the unhoused crisis?

Beyond climate buzz, Duluth of course rests at the western edge of the world's greatest source of freshwater. The region is also a major center in sometimes bitter debates about natural resources, recreation, pipelines, mining, tribal sovereignty and more.

The Alworth Center for the Study of Peace and Justice is devoting its 2023-24 series to addressing these issues. The series, "Water: Sustaining Life in the 21st Century," explores local and global perspectives related to water justice. The series began in September with a visit from tribal attorney and water protector Tara Houska. It will conclude in April with a visit from pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, whose efforts to bring attention to the public health emergency that came to be known as the Flint Water Crisis are chronicled in her book, What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City.

The 2023-24 Alworth series on water and the new academic program in Global Sustainability and Justice together work to bring a greater emphasis to the college on local-global connections and community relationships, including sustainability issues broadly defined. Coincidentally, the Benedictine college is focusing on its shared value of "stewardship" for this academic year.

Both the Alworth series and the new academic program are to be foundational aspects of the college's commitment to its value of stewardship in the years ahead. They offer students from the Upper Midwest and beyond an opportunity to study in a collaborative small-school setting in a location that is at once a major hub for recreation and a key location immersed in the most critical issues facing their generation.

For more information about the Alworth Center for the Study of Peace and Justice and its public events this year about water, visit css.edu/peace. For more information about the new academic program in Global Sustainability and Justice, visit our program page at css.edu/academics.  

Tim Lorek is assistant professor of history at the College of St. Scholastica. He directs the Alworth Center for the Study of Peace and Justice and is program director for the Global Sustainability and Justice major at the College. His research and writing focues on environmental history and agricultural politics in Latin America. He has a PhD from Yale University, a MA from the University of New Mexico, and a BA from Ohio University.