If you are looking for an inspiring course or two to take for a few days during Flagstaff's beautiful summers, the Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities Summer Institute offers a number of short courses either for credit or as non-credit workshops every summer. The courses cover a variety of topics, but share the common theme of good and sustainable communities.
The 2010 course offerings will be available in the spring. Please check back mid-semester for updates.
The 2009 course listings included:SUS 599: Colorado Plateau Farming and Gardening
Instructor: Miguel Vasquez
The Southwest is an arid, precarious, and unpredictable environment for human habitation, and agriculture in particular. Yet people have farmed and sustained themselves here for as long as anywhere in North America. At a time of concerns over peak-oil, economic turmoil, and the viability of our food system, many of us are beginning to look beyond commodified production systems for ideas. Along with mindful innovations, many already time-tested techniques for sustainability have only to be revisited and relearned and the Southwest region provides a tremendous range of examples of agricultural ingenuity. Through discussions, films, and field trips to plant with Hopi elders and local gardeners, this class will explore diverse agricultural techniques used in the Southwest by both Natives and newcomers. Dr. Miguel Vasquez, an agricultural anthropologist on the NAU faculty, has farmed and worked with farmers in Norway, Mexico, Guatemala, the San Joaquin Valley, and at Hopi, Navajo, and Havasupai, for over 35 years.
SUS 599: Community Needs Assessment
Instructor: Miguel Vasquez
Do you work in the private, public, or non-governmental sector? Do you need to know what is going on in your community? Do you need to know how to translate your findings into doable and sustainable solutions? Using Rapid Assessment, Response and Evaluation (RARE) techniques developed for the US Dept of Health and Human Services, and now used by agencies and organizations around the world, this course will provide you with the basic techniques of observation, social mapping, street intercept surveys, cultural expert interviews, focus groups, and other methods, to enable you to assess community behaviors, needs, and perspectives in a focused, systematic, and credible manner and to communicate them to stakeholders and policymakers. Dr. Miguel Vasquez, applied anthropologist on the NAU faculty, has worked as a trainer, evaluator, and consultant for the US Office of Minority Health with RARE projects in 19 cities across the US.
SUS 599: Community Mural Training:
Take Your Stories to the Wall
Instructors: Brett Ramey, David Lowenstein and Tamara Ramirez
Flagstaff and the surrounding Indigenous nations are home to many different communities, each with distinct stories to tell. It is important to remember and, in many cases, learn for the first time some of these stories that make our region unique. This Community Mural Training we will provide community members throughout the region with the skills needed to tell their own stories through the beautiful medium of public murals. Participants will leave with an in-depth understanding of how to facilitate their own community mural process - including how to organize community meetings, locate and secure spaces for their projects, locate funding sources, and create collaborative mural designs that are representative of their communities. Each participant will also have the opportunity to work, hands-on on a real mural project in the Flagstaff community.
SUS 599: Sustainable Backyard Beekeeping
Instructer:Patrick Pynes
In this hands-on workshop, we will learn about the rich history of beekeeping and bee culture; about the incredible intricacies of honeybee ecology; and about the latest spiritual ecological, and sustainable approaches to the ancient, all-important honeybee/human relationship.
SUS 599: Sitka Symposium
FrameWork: Shaping an Enduring Human Culture
Offered through the Island Institute
Class meets in Sitka, Alaska
See http://home.gci.net/~island/ for more information.
The Sitka Symposium is a gathering that aims to put both written and oral traditions to the service of ideas. The week's events invite participants to come together to explore the complex ideas and questions of our theme: Shaping an Enduring Human Culture. Symposium faculty present talks, readings, and panel discussions, and participate in small group discussions. Full-time participants engage directly with faculty and other participants in all these activities. Any writer who enrolls full-time may opt to have a manuscript critique with one of the faculty (submit by May 15). This course takes place in beautiful Sitka, Alaska. NAU tuition covers conference registration; students are responsible for travel and lodging.
SUS 599: Powering the Plateau
Instructor: William Auberle
This course is an examination of current sources of electricity and possibilities for new technologies to meet the growing electric energy needs of residents of the Colorado Plateau. Students will explore electricity generation in northern Arizona and its environmental consequences through readings, discussions and field trips. Travels include sites that produce electricity from coal, solar power and wind energy. Discussions will explore strategies and associated policies for meeting growing energy requirements in the Southwest while mitigating economic and environmental impacts. Specific attention will be given to greenhouse gases, mercury and other air pollutants plus water requirements associated with electricity generation. Discussions will be facilitated by energy experts from organizations with diverse interests in energy and our environment.
Documentary Filmmaking
Offered through the Zaki Gordon Institute
Class meets at the Zaki Gordon Institute in Sedona
Gain the skills to tell your story through the powerful medium of film. The Zaki Gordon Institute is dedicated to creating a new generation of filmmakers. Experienced or new to the craft, take advantage of the latest technology. Learn from the best within a film industry model. At ZGI everyone takes a shot at directing his or her own production!
Spirituality & Sustainability: Sustainability and Mental, Emotional & Spiritual Health
Instructor: David Roy
This course will explore the role of spiritually-rooted compassion in developing and maintaining sustainable communities. Significant use will be made of Whitehead’s process metaphysics in developing the key concepts of spirituality, compassion, and community. In the process perspective, spirituality and compassion are understood as part of the natural world; compassion involves the direct experience of the experience of others; and spirituality is the connection to the source of creativity. The class will include didactic material, discussion, and time for reflection.
David earned his Ph.D. from the Claremont School of Theology in the area of theology and personality. His dissertation, under the guidance of John B. Cobb Jr., was an integration of Whitehead’s process metaphysics and the theory of Gestalt Therapy. David has been a full-time practicing psychotherapist for more than 30 years and has led numerous workshops for professionals and the general public using Whitehead’s ideas as a guide to clarify the role of spirituality in facilitating human development.
To enroll for course credit, register on-line at www.nau.edu/louie. To enroll without course credit, please complete a registration form return with payment to:
Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities Program
Northen Arizona University
P.O. Box 6039
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
Here's a registration FAQ to help you with questions about registration deadlines, late fees, etc. Please email other questions to Tamara Ramirez or call the office at (928) 523-0499.