University of Richmond
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

The University offers course credit for student fellowships and research during the semester or over the summer with a professor. Credit is also offered for research completed abroad as well as at off-site facilities. The University also provides students with living expenses and a stipend for fellowships. Students enrolled in Environmental Studies, Geography and the Environment, Biology, and other departments often choose sustainability-related topics.

All University of Richmond students who are interested in an Arts & Sciences discipline, including sustainability-related fields, and who wish to conduct full-time research over the course of the summer can apply for a summer research fellowship through the School of Arts & Sciences. Fellowships are available for a minimum of 6 weeks and a maximum of 10 weeks.

Environmental Studies faculty are committed to mentoring undergraduate student research projects. There is a focus on communicating results, seeking publication in peer-reviewed journals, and making formal presentations at the School of Arts & Sciences’ annual Student Symposium, as well asat national and international conferences.

There is a faculty-reviewed poster session on sustainability topics at the annual Student Symposium. The top three posters receive awards.

The Office of Fellowships and Research supports students applying to the Udall Undergraduate Scholarship, which is dedicated to educating a new generation of Americans to preserve and protect their national heritage through scholarship, fellowship, and internship programs focused on environmental and Native American issues. The Udall Foundation is also committed to promoting the principles and practices of environmental conflict resolution.

The University of Richmond has Faculty Learning Communities that create space for collaboration across disciplines. Each Faculty Learning Community (FLC) encourages cross-program, cross-department, and cross-school interdisciplinary engagement with projects that are germane to the institution’s mission and the greater good of the University, the City of Richmond, the nation, and the world. Each FLC cohort engages in collaborative year-long projects that reflect the breadth and depth of UR faculty and staff commitment to both producing and expanding the frontiers of knowledge and education for the common good.

There have been three sustainability FLC's every year since 2016-2017.

To encourage, recognize, and formalize contributions by faculty to academic programs in schools other than the one in which they hold their primary appointment, or between departments within a school, the University has developed guidelines by which the deans, President, and Provost of the University may confer secondary appointments upon those faculty for whom such appointments are recommended. All joint appointments are documented in memos of understanding, and include a specification of how the coordinators/chairs/deans of the interacting programs/departments/schools will contribute to the annual faculty evaluation process and/or the mid-course/tenure review.

http://asadmin.richmond.edu/chairs/program_coordinator-job_description.html

The Faculty Hub is a new campus-wide initiative designed to help faculty:
Reflect on pedagogical practices and experiment with ways of making teaching effective for all learners; Connect with other faculty to share scholarship and teaching interests and approaches; Learn and incorporate new tools for pedagogy and scholarship, delivered in ways that consider the demands on faculty time; Connect with campus partners in ways that help advance teaching and scholarship goals; Engage in programming that advances the professional development of faculty at different career stages; Build community among the faculty. Workshops that support interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research are offered.

The University Library has created a guide for sustainability-related materials. This guide showcases Boatwright Library's resources for research on sustainability and related topics

Sustainability libguide: https://libguides.richmond.edu/sustainability


Collection development policy for Environmental Studies:
https://libguides.richmond.edu/c.php?g=154264&p=4073153&preview=e9cff6937b0f50dbf41c7d4bf4a97d19

And for Interdisciplinary Programs:
https://libguides.richmond.edu/c.php?g=154264&p=4084479&preview=e9cff6937b0f50dbf41c7d4bf4a97d19

Data provided by Samantha Guss, Social Sciences Librarian for Data, Statistics, & Government Information, the Provost's Office, and the Faculty Hub.