Maria Woolson: Arts & Humanities in Engaging Actionable Paths for the Sustainable Development Goals

Global change is increasingly understood as systemic, eco-social and complex. This challenge require that institutions deepen the capacity to foster leadership and catalyze systemic responses to both local and regional problems. For such visions to be realized, students will need competencies for working across boundaries and differences ranging from diverse disciplines and methods, to identities and cultures; and many of those skills will come from humanistic perspectives that are often overlooked in favor of technical orientations. This talk will highlight ways in which the humanities and the arts contribute to a robust understanding of the sustainability paradigm while fostering a dialogue across disciplines, and discuss opportunities to create actionable pathways for engaging the 2015 United Nations SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).