Faculty Fellowship
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The Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellowship (SF3) Program aims to deepen student inquiry and learning into sustainability by supporting faculty to pursue, document, and share their research findings on innovative pedagogical approaches towards sustainability at the undergraduate level.
For more info on the Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellowship (SF3) program, please contact Victoria Ho (Advisor, Strategic Sustainability) at vho@ocadu.ca.
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What do we mean by sustainability?
Sustainability as a framework acknowledges the interdependence of living systems at all scales, from local to planetary, and pursues social and ecological harmony to continue the cycle of life for generations to come. This understanding of sustainability includes OCAD U's Indigenous Learning Outcomes, the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, and the principles and values identified in OCAD U's Sustainability Policy.
What do we mean by pedagogical research?
Pedagogical research is concerned with how learning happens, addressing both curricular questions (what one learns) and teaching questions (how one learns). Also known as the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), pedagogical research is critical and systematic inquiry into what, how, and why we learn that contributes to broader, research-informed discourses in the field of education.
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2023/24 recipients
Follow along OCAD U's sustainability-centred research journey and access recordings of previous research talks! The Fellows conducted their course-based research in Fall 2023 and presented their research to the broader community at OCAD U workshops and at national and international academic conferences.
Workshops and talks
- Inquiries into Student Learning through Sustainable Futures Pedagogical Research on November 9, 2023 at the 2023 Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) Symposium, “What is Freedom?”, held in Cincinnati, USA.
- SF3 Research Talk: Student Connections at OCAD U on January 29, 2024 at OCAD University. Recording: SF3 Research Talk_ Student Connections.mp4
- Sustainability (as) Pedagogy: Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellowship (SF3) Research Talk on May 13, 2024 in partnership with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). This was a public research talk held within OCAD U’s role as a Center for Sustainability Across the Curriculum.
- Sustainability Pedagogies Through Space and Place on June 17, 2024 at the 2024 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, “Sustaining Shared Futures”, held in Montreal, QC with the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE). Congress is the largest academic gathering in Canada.
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Dr. Lori Riva, Faculty of Arts & Science
"Mapping Urban Ecologies in VISC 4005": Lori evaluated how critical and collaborative mapping can deepen student learning about sustainability in an urban context and promote student engagement with the land and place. Students collaborated on the creation of an ecological visual map of a specific site in Toronto.
Lori Riva (she/her) is Assistant Professor with a teaching focus in contemporary architecture, design, and urbanism, and Environmental Design thesis. She earned her PhD from the McGill School of Architecture, and MArch from the University of Toronto. Her current work on practices of care in design investigates a shift in values and criteria for what makes meaningful design of public spaces. She undertakes this research on sustainability pedagogy as part of her commitment toward rethinking design approaches and paradigms in her teaching.
Julia Rose Sutherland, Faculty of Design
"Lessons from The Land: Textiles Dyeing MAAD": Julia Rose proposes to deepen student inquiry and learning into sustainability by exploring sustainable dyeing techniques through a land-based and decolonized framework that involves utilizing Indigenous plants in Toronto, phasing out synthetic dyes, community engagement and examining water usage and collection in the studio.
Julia Rose Sutherland (She/They) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator and Assistant Professor at OCAD U. She is mixed race Mi'kmaq (Metepenagiag Nation) and of settler descent. Sutherland received her MFA from the University of Buffalo in 2019 and her BFA from Alberta University of the Arts in 2013.
Natalie Majaba Waldburger, Faculty of Art
"Life-2002: Worlding and Worldmaking": Imagining the one-room schoolhouse in relation to the Indigenous Learning Outcomes and Wholistic Approach to Curriculum to connect land-based knowledge and decolonial pedagogies, Natalie investigated the interconnected relationship between these decolonial models of pedagogy and sustainable material practices in life studies.
Natalie Majaba Waldburger's current art practice is open-disciplinary and seeks to understand the complexities of respectful collaboration and participatory work in the context of anti-colonial research. In recent years, institutional critique has become the focus for collaborative art practices as a co-founding member of The Drawing Board. As an Associate Professor at OCAD U, Natalie has served as Chair for a number of programs in the faculty of Art including the inaugural Ada Slaight Chair of Contemporary Painting and Print Media and, most recently, Interim Chair of Sculpture/Installation and Life Studies and Grievance Chair for OCADFA.
