U. debuts new 'creative expression and the environment' minor

The University has debuted a new minor in creative expression and the environment in the Fall 2023 semester. The interdisciplinary minor helps students learn about the environment and sustainability, as well as react to these issues through the arts and humanities lens.

This minor is open to students from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the School of Arts and Sciences, according to the program's website.

Mary Nucci, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Human Ecology, said she designed the minor with two other faculty members: Rebecca Cypess, an associate dean for Academic Affairs and an associate professor in the Department of Music, and Jorge Marcone, an associate dean in the Division of Humanities and a professor in the Departments of Spanish and Portuguese and Comparative Literature.

They secured the University's authorization for the minor in the summer of 2023.

"A major point to why this minor is so valuable is that students will have a basic grounding in environmental science, humanities and arts," Nucci said. "And, given the range of possible electives, (students will) be able to follow their own interests to build out their education in environmental concerns."

The minor will require the following three-credit classes: Introduction to Environmental Science, Introduction to Environmental Arts and Our World: Social Justice and the Environment, according to the minor's website.

After the required courses, students can choose electives from various disciplines, such as agriculture and natural resources, meteorology, supply chain management, American studies, theater arts and more, the website said.

Nucci said that the arts have traditionally incorporated sustainable practices, particularly when finding alternative materials due to financial constraints. She mentioned that many students currently enroll in courses for the minor, as these classes were already available.

She also said that Mason Gross has emphasized the relationship between the arts and the environment in recently-added course curricula.

"As to expectations, we are hoping that students from across the schools will recognize the value of this minor for their careers and lives," Nucci said.

She said she will teach Environmental Writing: Rhetorical Strategies for Complex Ecological Issues as an elective for the minor. Nucci mentioned that she wants her students to feel unintimidated by science as an academic field.

Marcone said he will teach one of the required courses, Our World: Social Justice and the Environment. His course focuses on understanding the contradiction of the media's representation of indigenous and aboriginal communities and their belief systems, approaches to the environment and attitudes toward life, he said.

"What I have learned from developing and sharing this course with the students is that they, too, appreciate the opportunity for a comparative approach to how our lives are transformed by local or planetary transformations, especially how they touch our beliefs, values, practices and even our own identities," he said.

Marcone said he hopes that future students who may participate in the course will understand the principles of researching and working with individuals from differing academic backgrounds.

Rita Leduc, a lecturer in Rutgers Arts Online, said she teaches Introduction to Environmental Arts, one of the required courses for the minor. She began teaching the course this year, and one of her main learning objectives is for students to learn how to integrate their creativity into environmental studies.

"Sustainability is a word that has evolved to mean different things to different people, particularly in recent years," she said. "We investigate that and think about what 'sustainability' might mean within the context of wanting to create a more ecological society."

Leduc's class focuses on understanding the discipline of environmental arts through projects and practical work with the environment. As for the interdisciplinary aspect, students analyze questions about pressing environmental issues, she said.

"There are qualitative superpowers that the world needs right now to recalibrate our balance," she said. "On a very small scale, this is what we're doing in the course — letting the world teach us these superpowers and figuring out how to apply them within and beyond the arts."