Disseminating Human-ecodynamics Research

Cuny Graduate School University Center, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports an innovative science/community partnership through the Barbuda Research Complex (a collaborative partnership of researchers from the City University of New York and key community stakeholders in Barbuda, West Indies) that would facilitate the development of immersive science research opportunities for informal education on active field research conducted in Barbuda over the past seven years. For the last four years, the PI has been engaged in an Arctic Social Science Program supported REU Site project "Islands of Change," which explored the teleconnections between Arctic human ecodynamic systems and those of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Although the community of Barbuda is a long way from the Arctic in miles, Perdikaris makes these connections salient by borrowing conceptually from the UN's program "Many Strong Voices" (MSV). MSV is a program that connects Arctic communities and SIDS communities because of the comparable social and cultural challenges they face being on the front line of rapid environmental change. This project is in direct response to the Barbudan community's expressed need for sustained science education opportunities, which happen outside of the classroom and beyond the field season. The PI and her research team have developed a model for community engagement, which culminates in a permanent educational legacy for research projects, envisioned as an education and museum space that would use placed-based learning techniques to communicate understanding of science to a public audience. In addition, the PI and her research team proposes to create an exhibition in Barbuda, which incorporates traditional and local knowledge that will ultimately travel to Iceland in collaboration with the Husavik Museum, which will significantly broadening the reach of the exhibition, modeling knowledge exchange between the two regions over the course of science research projects.